Viagra developer Furchgott dies at 92 (AFP)

Sun May 24, 5:29 pm ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – Robert Furchgott, the Nobel prize-winning scientist whose research on a gas's effect as a blood vessel relaxant paved the way for revolutionary impotence treatments such as Viagra, has died at age 92. The pharmacologist died last Tuesday in the northwestern city of Seattle, his daughter said in Sunday's New York Times. Research led by Furchgott and colleagues Louis Ignarro and Ferid Murad showed that nitric oxide -- known primarily as an air pollutant from cigarettes and car engines that contributes to smog -- plays a vital role in the human cardiovascular system and regulating blood pressure and circulation. The three researchers earned the Nobel prize for physiology in 1998, with the Swedish academy stressing it was the first time scientists proved the critical effects of a gas on biochemical functions in the human body. The discovery of the effect of nitric oxide, a colorless and odorless gas, on the relaxation of blood vessels marked a key step in laboratory company Pfizer's development of the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil, which it markets under the name Viagra. The little blue pill was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1998 as a treatment for erectile dysfunction and became enormously popular, bursting perceived social taboos of treating such a condition, with some 35 million men worldwide using the drug. Furchgott was born in Charleston, South Carolina on June 4, 1916, and as a youth developed a passion for the natural sciences. He graduated from the University of North Carolina with a chemistry degree and earned a doctorate in biochemistry from Northwestern University in 1940. He worked for years at the State University of New York, among other colleges, and continued doing research and teaching into his 80s despite a partial retirement. In 1978, he accidentally discovered an element in endothelial cells that relaxes blood vessels, describing it as endothelium-derived relaxing factor, or EDRF. Eight years later, he figured out that EDRF was in fact nitric oxide. During his Nobel acceptance speech, Furchgott noted the irony that the prize's namesake Alfred Nobel, celebrated for his work with nitroglycerine and dynamite, had suffered from angina, the insufficient flow of oxygenated blood to the heart for which he was prescribed nitrogylcerine, itself a known blood vessel dilator. Furchgott pointed to the "seemingly fated progression" from the creation of dynamite to the laureate's discovery of the molecule in nitrogylcerin responsible for the dilation of blood vessels that would help people like Nobel.
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Viagra developer Furchgott dead at 92: report (AFP)

Sun May 24, 10:15 am ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – Robert Furchgott, a Nobel prize-winning pharmacologist whose work with the gas nitric oxide helped develop the anti-impotency drug Viagra, has died at the age of 92, The New York Times reported Sunday. The newspaper said his daughter Susan Furchgott had confirmed the death, which occurred on Tuesday in Seattle. According to The Times, research by Furchgott, Louis Ignarro and Ferid Murad has proven that nitric oxide, widely known as an air pollutant, also acted as an important signal in the cardiovascular system, mediating blood pressure and blood flow. This ability of nitric oxide to enlarge blood vessels was an important step in the development by Pfizer Corporation of the drug sildenafil citrate, which is also known as Viagra. The drug ameliorates impotence by increasing blood flow to the penis. Pfizer has called the nitric acid discovery "a small piece of information" in its inventing of the drug. In awarding Furchgott and his colleagues the prize for medicine in 1998, the Swedish Nobel assembly praised them for providing the first proof that a gas can perform important biochemical functions in the body. Furchgott was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 4, 1916, and developed an early interest in birds, shells and other natural phenomena. He earned a degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina and a doctorate in biochemistry from Northwestern University. In the 1950s, Furchgott developed a method for determining how blood vessels respond to medications, neurotransmitters and hormones, using a rabbit?s artery. This allowed him to study the effects of drugs on vascular smooth muscle.
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Free Lipitor, Viagra, other drugs for jobless (AP)

By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer Linda A. Johnson, Ap Business Writer – Thu May 14, 8:58 am ET TRENTON, N.J. – Pfizer Inc. is unveiling a new program Thursday that will let people who have lost their jobs and health insurance keep taking some widely prescribed Pfizer medications — including Lipitor and Viagra — for free for up to a year. The world's biggest drugmaker will provide more than 70 of its prescription drugs at no cost to unemployed, uninsured Americans, regardless of their prior income, who lost jobs since Jan. 1 and have been on the Pfizer drug for three months or more. The announcement comes amid massive job losses caused by the recession and a campaign in Washington to rein in health care costs and extend coverage. The move could earn Pfizer some goodwill in that debate after long being a target of critics of drug industry prices and sales practices. The program also likely will help keep those patients loyal to Pfizer brands. "Everybody knows now a neighbor, a relative who has lost their job and is losing their insurance. People are definitely hurting out there," Dr. Jorge Puente, Pfizer's head of pharmaceuticals outside the U.S. and Europe and a champion of the project, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Wednesday. "Our aim is to help people bridge this point." Officials for New York-based Pfizer said they don't know how much the program will cost and haven't put a cap on spending for it. Applicants will have to sign a statement that they are suffering financial hardship and provide a "pink slip" or similar employer notice. Applications will be accepted through Dec. 31, with medication provided for up to 12 months after approval — or until the person becomes insured again. Starting Thursday, patients can call a toll-free number, 866-706-2400, to sign up, and those whose drugs are not included in the program will be referred to other company aid programs. Starting July 1, patients can also apply through the Web site, http://www.PfizerHelpfulAnswers.com, which has information about the other Pfizer aid programs. Pfizer and the rest of the drug industry is trying to have a voice in the debate over how to overhaul the U.S. health care system, partly by joining in a pledge this week to help hold down inflation of health costs. "There's a long-term benefit there, beyond the goodwill and the publicity," said David Heupel, health care portfolio manager at Thrivent Large Cap Growth Fund. "Pfizer is trying to maintain their (market) share, if not grow their share" by keeping people from switching to generic versions of its drugs to save money. "If you're already taking medication that's working, typically doctors don't push to change it," Heupel said. Pfizer's program comes at a time when many drugmakers, including Pfizer, have been raising prices on their drugs, partly to offset declines in revenue as the global recession reduces the number of prescriptions people can afford to fill. The idea for the program came just five weeks ago, at a leadership training meeting, as the workers discussed how many patients are struggling, Puente said. "It was my idea," he said. "I floated it, and the reception it got was so dramatic that it very quickly became our idea." Colleagues suggested employees could donate to a fund to help support the effort, Puente said. He said some employees had tears in their eyes when discussing how they could help people who had lost jobs. He said he urged top management to approve the program, presenting a recent Associated Press article about how newly uninsured diabetics are suffering serious complications because they can no longer afford the medicines and testing supplies. Approval came quickly. The 70-plus drugs covered include several diabetes drugs and some of Pfizer's top money makers, from cholesterol fighter Lipitor and painkiller Celebrex to fibromyalgia treatment Lyrica and Viagra for impotence. The list includes drugs from several other popular classes, including antibiotics, antidepressants, antifungal treatments, several heart drugs, contraceptives and smoking cessation products. Cheaper generic versions are available for quite a few of the drugs. Pfizer said that from 2004 through 2008, its patient assistance programs helped 5.1 million people get 51 million Pfizer prescriptions for free or at reduced cost, with a total value of $4.8 billion.
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Polish priest advocates happy sex life in new book (AP)

By RYAN LUCAS, Associated Press Writer Ryan Lucas, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 13, 10:26 am ET WARSAW, Poland – The Rev. Ksawery Knotz has a message for all married Catholic couples out there: there's nothing wrong with a steamy sex life. In fact, it's a good thing. In his new book "Sex as you don't know it: For married couples who love God," the Polish friar provides a theological and practical guide for Catholics that has little in common with the strait-laced attitudes often associated with the Roman Catholic Church. "Some people, when they hear about the holiness of married sex, immediately imagine that such sex has to be deprived of joy, frivolous play, fantasy and attractive positions," Knotz writes. "(They think) it has to be sad like a traditional church hymn." But Knotz, a Franciscan friar from a monastery outside Krakow in southern Poland, wants to change all that. His book aims to sweep away the taboos and assure Catholic couples that good sex is part of a good marriage. "The most important message is that sexuality does not deviate at all from religiousness and the Catholic faith, and that we can connect spirituality and a search for God with a happy sex life," Knotz told The Associated Press by telephone. Much of the book stems from questions that Knotz encountered while counseling married couples. "I talk with a lot of married couples and I listen to them, so these problems just kind of sit in my mind," he said. "I would like for them to be happier with their sex life, and for them to understand the Church's teachings so there won't be unnecessary tension or a sense of guilt." Clergymen, including Knotz's countryman Pope John Paul II and his successor Pope Benedict XVI, have written about the ethics of love, marriage and sexuality before, and laymen have penned steamy sex guides for married Catholic couples. But few if any priests have taken Knotz's explicit approach to sex — including everything from the theological to the practical, from oral sex to contraception and the number of children a Catholic couple should have. "Every act — a type of caress, a sexual position — with the goal of arousal is permitted and pleases God," Knotz writes. "During sexual intercourse, married couples can show their love in every way, can offer one another the most sought after caresses. They can employ manual and oral stimulation." The book falls squarely within the commonly held view of the Church's teaching on sex: Knotz discourages the use of condoms or birth control pills, and says they "lead a married couple outside of Catholic culture and into a completely different lifestyle." But some Poles have been surprised by the overriding message of the book: sex is an important way for a man and wife to express their love and grow closer to God. "Married couples celebrate their sacrament, their life with Christ also during sex," Knotz writes. "Calling sex a celebration of the marriage sacrament raises its dignity in an exceptional way. Such a statement shocks people who learned to look at sexuality in a bad way. It is difficult for them to understand that God is also interested in their happy sex life and in this way gives them his gift." The book received the necessary approval from Poland's church authorities that it is theologically in line with Catholic teachings. There also has been no sign of a backlash in the heavily Catholic and conservative homeland of the late Pope John Paul II. Still, Knotz acknowledges that a priest writing a book about sex "is in and of itself a bit of a sensation." The book hit stores across Poland last month. The Sw. Pawel publishing house has ordered a reprint after readers quickly snapped up the first 5,000 copies. The publisher said it is in talks about possible English, Italian and Slovakian translations of the Polish-language book.
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