On the up: Success where Viagra failed

On the up: Success where Viagra failed
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PARIS (AFP) - Men who fail to get an erection with the best-selling drug Viagra may have better luck with a rival product, Levitra, according to research reported in next Saturday’s New Scientist.

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Researchers led by Culley Carson of the University of North Carolina Hospital in Chapel Hill recruited 463 men who had tried Viagra in vain.

Nearly half of them who took Levitra managed successful intercourse, compared with one in six who took a harmless lookalike called a placebo.

Quite why Levitra should make a difference is unclear, as both drugs work by blocking a molecular pathway, the phosphodiesterase type-5 enzyme, which degrades the chemicals that sustain an erection.

The results were presented at a meeting of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America, the report says.