The Northern Ireland doctor who helped to develop Viagra is now hoping to help couples around the world with a wonder drug even more effective than the famous blue pill.

Viagra by global pharmaceutical company Pfizer has helped to revolutionise the sex lives of millions of men across the world.

Now a new drug — which was tested on patients in Northern Ireland — looks set to help even more couples who are affected by erectile dysfunction.

Professor Wallace Dinsmore, a consultant physician at the Royal Victoria Hospital, sees several thousand men a year suffering with erectile dysfunction.

He said a new formulation of the drug Levitra Oral Dispersible is absorbed directly into the bloodstream from the mouth meaning it is effective within half-an-hour.

He explained: “Unlike Viagra, which has to be taken on an empty stomach, this is effective even if the man has been eating or drinking. It also works much quicker so couples don’t have to plan ahead to have sex.

“The main difference between this and Viagra is that it will allow people to have sex when they feel like it, rather than having to wait and plan ahead as you have to do with other medication.

“This removes all that. For most couples, sex is spontaneous and this drug allows this to happen.”

The drug is now available on prescription from GPs and consultants across the UK.

“A large number of patients in Northern Ireland have already used the drug with success during the trials,” added Prof Dinsmore. He said Levitra Oral Dispersible, from pharmaceutical manufacturer Bayer, will not replace the likes of Viagra but will offer doctors an option for treating patients: “You find one drug works better for a person than another.

“Some people regard erectile dysfunction as not particularly important when you compare it with other medical conditions, but I see men who are suicidal because of it.

“They are men who are in a long-term relationship they value and having a normal sex life is very important to them, so the problem can be extremely distressing. These drugs can prevent marriages from breaking up with all the distress accompanying that.

“They can help keep families together and even stop suicide. I have had a lot of patients come to me and say they were on the brink of suicide before they got treatment. This will substantially change the treatment of men with erectile dysfunction.”

Prof Dinsmore also said men with erectile function problems could be at risk of developing heart complications.

“Recent research has found that if a middle-aged man has erectile dysfunction it is very likely they will have a heart attack or another kind of cardiac problem within three years.

“This is typical in patients who are in their 50s, who smoke, have diabetes, family history of heart disease and erectile dysfunction. Quite often I see men who have all these problems and they don’t realise they are at risk, and I refer them on to a cardiologist.”

Background

Erectile dysfunction, or impotence, is the inability to get and maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual intercourse. It can have a range of causes — physical and psychological — including narrowing of blood vessels to the penis. It is estimated that half of all men between the ages of 40 to 70 will have some degree of erectile dysfunction.