Viagra Nation
Suddenly everyone wants the little pill that cures impotence

We should have seen this coming from a mile away. Any country that found in Prozac an excuse to dope itself to the gills over the occasional bad hair day was bound to go nuts over a drug that promised -- and delivered! -- the sexual Holy Grail: Dependable erections. Any-time, no-questions-asked hard-ons courtesy of a little diamond-shaped pill retailing for $7-10 each.

Two weeks into the release of Pfizer's new impotence drug Viagra, the numbers are impressive to say the least. An estimated 40,000 impotence prescriptions are filled each day. Viagra suddenly controls 79 percent of the impotence drug market, according to drug research firm IMS America. And then there's the anecdotal evidence: One doctor has stopped taking calls. Another now uses a rubber stamp to fill prescriptions because he says his hand's getting cramped. Newspapers were giddy: "Doctors Can Barely Keep Up As Men Flock For Love Drug," gushed the New York Post, while Reuters shamelessly added that "Drug Analyst Says Viagra Sales Appear Enormous." All this before Pfizer has even had a chance to unleash an advertising campaign.

Comparisons were immediately made to Prozac. . . (continued)