The FDA announced that it has approved Eli Lily’s answer to Viagra, known as Cialis, for the treatment of enlarged prostate.
This should prove to be a boon for Eli Lily’s blockbuster impotence medication. The FDA stated that Cialis can now be labelled for treatment of a non cancerous enlarged prostate, (called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and be used for people who have both BPH and erectile dysfunction.
Nearly half of men over fifty suffer from enlarged prostate problems that can cause difficulty urinating.
Scott Monroe, director of the FDA’s division of reproductive and urologic products confirmed :
“BPH can have a big impact on a patient’s quality of life … Cialis offers these men another treatment option, particularly those who also have ED (erectile dysfunction), which is also common in older men.”
Cialis is the brand name for Tadalafil, a PDE5 inhibitor, which in short serves to relax the muscular walls of the arteries and is also used under the name of Adcirca for treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. It was originally approved Nov. 2003 and was the third erectile dysfunction drug to enter the market after Viagra and Levitra. However Cialis is the only one of the three that is offered as a daily medications and its 36 hour effectiveness earned it the nickname of “the weekend pill”.
Rupert Shepherd B.Sc.