Premature ejaculation drug may be effective (16145)

The first drug formulated to treat premature ejaculation delayed climax and increased reported satisfaction in a late-stage study, its developer, Johnson & Johnson, said on Monday. A Phase III clinical trial of 2,614 men showed the drug provided "significant improvements in sexual function, including ejaculatory control and satisfaction with sexual intercourse for men and their partners," Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, a unit of J&J, said in a statement.

The drug, called dapoxetine, is being codeveloped by J&J's Alza Corp. and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Services LLC units. The company's Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical unit will market the drug in the United States if it receives U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.

The American Urological Association estimates that premature ejaculation affects anywhere between 27% and 34% of men across all age ranges. Erectile dysfunction, the condition that made Pfizer's impotence drug Viagra into a blockbuster, affects an estimated 10% to 12% of men.

Researchers working on the drug reported last month that they could define premature ejaculation. They said a man with the condition took 1.8 minutes to ejaculate after beginning intercourse compared to 7.3 minutes for most men.

In a study presented to a meeting of the American Urological Association in San Antonio, researchers said men who took dapoxetine at doses of either 30 milligrams or 60 milligrams had a three- to four-fold increase in this time compared to men given a placebo. The percentage of men rating control over ejaculation as "fair to very good" increased from 2.5% before getting the drug to 51.8% afterward for men who got the lower dose, to 58% of men given the higher dose. (Reuters)