Discovery of Viagra
Summary
Viagra, the fastest selling drug of all time, is not used for what it was first designed. This is not unusual – many medicines are used for illnesses that they were not initially designed for.
UK92480 was one of millions of compounds created by Pfizer, to be used to relax blood vessels around the heart, as a treatment for angina. But its trials in humans were a failure as far as angina was concerned. However, test users reported a side effect – lots of erections.
Scientists decided to test these reports, and found them to correct. Relaxed penile blood vessels mean more blood flow to the penis, and so an erection. Scientists took penile blood vessels from impotent men, and added UK92480 to them. They immediately converted these blood vessels to functional ones.
Keywords: Viagra, erectile disfunction, Pfizer, UK92480, Sildenafil citrate
