Better Late Than Never: Premature Ejaculation Drug May Be Coming Back

In October 2005 the FDA issued an non-approval letter to the ALZA Corporation, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson, regarding their application for Dapoxetine, meant to be the first drug designed specifically as a treatment for premature ejaculation.

But an article, and accompanying editorial in the recent issue of The Lancet is breathing new life into the much anticipated drug that came up a bit short at the FDA. The paper, reports on two clinical studies of 2,600 men who all experience premature ejaculation (in these trials the average was ejaculation in less than one minute of beginning penetration). Whether or not these trials effectively address the FDA's concerns remains to be seen, but they certainly are an opportunity for the manufacturer to get the PR wheels spinning. And boy do those guys earn their keep.

There have been at least a half dozen pieces on the new trials, and several articles, including this one from the CBC and this one from the BBC, fail to even mention the FDA problems last year.

All of the articles put a positive spin on the findings from the trials, which found that ejaculation was delayed after 12 weeks of taking the drug, and there was a three- to four-fold increase in the time to ejaculation. Mind you in actual time, this increase went from less than one minute to just under three and a half minutes (at the highest dosage). One has to wonder how they are measuring “success” in these trials, and exactly how much time bought is worth the side effects (which were reported as including nausea, diarrhea, headache and dizziness).

A choice piece of propaganda comes in convenient quote form from Peter Baker who runs a site called the Men's Health Forum (and whose journalistic experience includes a four year term as the health editor for Maxim). Baker is quoted in the BBC piece as saying: "There is really very little treatment for premature ejaculation so any drug which may help would be welcome." In fact there are plenty of treatments for premature ejaculation, but it's true that there aren't any that come in pill form and allow a man to never talk about sex with his partner, or experiment with different ways of being sexual. All the current treatments require that men examine their sex lives in order to change them. Which I suppose makes them less appealing, but it shouldn't make them non-existent.

Read more - Drugs that Treat Premature Ejaculation

Read more - Reuters: Drug shown to improve common male sexual problem