Viagra skin patch in development – And it works faster than tablets!

People usually wear plasters to stem blood flow, but imagine putting one on to actually get something into the bloodstream?

For that is the idea behind a new way to treat erectile dysfunction in men, with scientists at universities at Cairo and Saudi Arabia looking at getting viagra into the blood, acting in a similar way to a smoking patch.

Men suffering with impotence problems would theoretically be able to wear the viagra skin patch on their upper arm or the abdomen, and perhaps most importantly for men, will kick-in within just a matter of seconds or minutes. Viagra can take between 30 minutes to an hour to work.

This means it will get men in the mood for sex even quicker than the time it takes them to get into the bedroom and take their clothes off!

Moreover, after taking the tablet version of viagra, some men occasionally experience various non-life threatening side effects such as blurred vision, slight headache, indigestion and muscle pain. The new erectile dysfunction skin patch would mean an end to these unwanted effects.

The team involved in the research at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, along with scientists at Cairo University, utilised a new drug delivery method, known as transferome technology.
A tiny patch measured at just 1cm squared was created, comprised of minute particles of sildenafil citrate (the active ingredient in viagra) which is coated with thin layers of fat and chemicals that will enable the skin to absorb the drug.

The patch was then tested on rats in order to judge just how much – if any – of the medicine would manage to penetrate the skin. The patch used on the rats only contained 1 milligram of viagra, which means bigger patches would need to be fashioned to accommodate for doses of viagra prescribed to men, which can range from 25mg to 100mg.

In a report in the journal Drug Design, Development and Therapy, scientists said the results demonstrated that viagra particles successfully transmitted through both the outer and inner layers of the skin.
In a report on the findings they said: “This could be a promising delivery system for the drug.
“The skin is an alternative route to the oral one, prolonging the effect and reducing variability.”
Although the patch has only been tested on rats thus far, there are hopes for future clinical trials on humans.

Since viagra first became available in 1998, its popularity has skyrocketed and has boosted the love lives of millions of men across the globe. After viagra became a huge success, its chunk of the market was somewhat reduced following the 2003 FDA-approvals of both levitra (vardenafil) and cialis (tadalafil) for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

According to official health statistics, over 3.5m prescriptions were dispensed in England during 2015 alone for medicines to treat erectile dysfunction.

The manufacturers of viagra, Pfizer, were forced into lowering the hefty price of viagra after seeing its patent expire in 2013 and this led to many generic sildenafil products entering the market, drugs that contained exactly the same active ingredient of the branded viagra, but could be sold to patients for just a fraction of the price.

However, men might not want to completely ditch their oral medications just yet. The British Society of Sexual Medicine’s Dr Geoff Hackett warns that the patches will actually hit patients hard in the wallet compared to existing treatments.

“It might be a nice way of delivering the drug,” he said.

“But I can’t see how a patch likely to cost around £10 is going to replace a pill that’s a fraction of the price.”

Erectile Dysfunction prescriptions soar 25% in a year

Just a week ago Medical Specialists® Pharmacy dramatically lowered the prices on ALL erectile dysfunction treatments, such as Viagra, generic sildenafil, Cialis, etc., and the response in the subsequent seven days has shocked even those at Medical Specialists®.

With this huge price crash, thousands of male patients from all over the UK suffering with impotence – and indeed other countries around the globe – have been using the online consultation service to submit orders for various erectile dysfunction treatments. To give an example of the price drop, 4 x Viagra 100mg tablets were previously priced at £55.95 (Inc. delivery to mainland UK), but are now priced at just £34.95.

Perhaps many have suffered in silence for too long and finally decided to seek help from Medical Specialists®, or were simply deterred by the cost of the medications, either way it seems our staggering cost reduction to patients has resulted in a soar in requests for erectile dysfunction treatments.

It is not just at Medical Specialists® though where requests for male impotence medications are coming in thick and fast, with new figures showing that prescriptions for erectile dysfunction drugs such as Viagra soaring by over 25% within a year in the UK, as costs reduced by 85.9% with the availability of generic versions from 2013.

According to statistics from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), last year there was found to be 1.7 million prescriptions dispensed for sildenafil (often sold as the branded Viagra), but is also obtainable under other trade names.  The HSCIC report analyses prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacists, dispensing doctors and in GP practices.

In comparison, there were 1.4 million prescriptions of sildenafil dispensed during 2013, and just one million back in 2004. For purely sildenafil alone, it was found that prescriptions increased by 21% during the previous year.

However, drugs for other conditions have seen a large increase in prescriptions too, with HSCIC figures showing that antidepressants, which includes medications for depressive illness, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, and panic attacks, increased by 7.2%, with 57.1 million dispensed last year, compared to 53.3 million in 2013. That means the number of dispensed prescriptions for antidepressants has almost doubled from the 29 million dispensed in 2004.

Other HSCIC stats show that in excess of 1.06 billion drugs were prescribed across England in 2014, a rise of 3.3% on the number prescribed during 2013 and an incredible rise of 55.2% on 2004.
Another finding was that the overall net ingredient cost of prescriptions in 2014 stood at £8.85 billion, representing a 2.6% rise of 2013 and 9.6% increase over the previous 10 years.

For the eighth successive year, the most amount of money went on diabetes drugs, with a 7% increase – rising by £55.3 million from 2013 to 2014, to reach £849.1 million.

Popular cholesterol drug Atorvastatin, a treatment that helps to cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes, was discovered to have the biggest rise in the number of items dispensed, with a four million rise since 2013.

Impotence drug Sildenafil still being rationed on the NHS

Nearly all of us undoubtedly love sex. Besides the obvious fact that sex is quite clearly fun, it can even have health benefits in the form of being a stress and tension buster, and regular sex can even help people to lose weight as it is a great form of exercise.

However, how would you like to be told how much sex you can actually engage in on a weekly or monthly basis? Instantly negating the exciting and spontaneous nature of sex, it could force couples to plan when to have sex if they are rationed to a specific number of times.

It sounds absurd, but this is what NHS bosses have been accused of doing – ‘rationing’ the amount of times men suffering with erectile dysfunction (ED) can have sex. It is no wonder then that Medical Specialists® Pharmacy continue to have many thousands of men with ED coming to us seeking treatment for the condition.

Apparently, doctors have been informed they should not be prescribing more than one single pill of ‘generic’ Viagra per week to each patient that comes to them regarding their impotence problems.
The ridiculously strict limit was passed on despite the fact a pack of four pills costs the NHS as little as £1.45, or 36p a tablet.

With Pfizer (Viagra’s manufacturer) losing its UK patent in 2013, it is now legal for certain drug companies to produce their own impotence treatments that also contain sildenafil – Viagra’s active ingredient.

As what happens with increased competition in any market, the price has drastically decreased with regards to sildenafil, prompting the Department of Health to scrap regulations on the prescribing of sildenafil, ergo allowing most men with ED to be eligible for sildenafil on the NHS.

Health bosses seem to have become worried by this though, in particularly the financial impact it could have.

One letter was recently sent to doctors in the West Midlands by managers at NHS Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) calling for GPs to restrict their prescribing of sildenafil.

The letter stated: “In light of the pressure on NHS budgets, patients who are eligible for NHS treatment should be prescribed the lowest effective dose, with a maximum frequency of ONE tablet per week (i.e. FOUR per MONTH).”

Dr Martin Duerden, a GP based in North Wales who advises the Royal College of General Practitioners on prescribing, replied back: “Can we ration sex in this way? Prescriptions for sildenafil have no restrictions and each person should be assessed as individuals – some will need more, some less.”

Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy fight the counterfeiters with giveaway Erectile Dysfunction prices!

There’s no two ways about it: counterfeit drugs can kill. They are dangerous. They are poorly produced in disgusting warehouses by crooks with no pharmaceutical knowledge and no regards for your wellbeing.

Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction medication Viagra is amongst the most copied medicines in the world, but counterfeits of the ‘little blue pill’ have been found to contain some shocking ingredients lurking inside.

Fake Viagra pills are usually sent to Pfizer’s laboratory for analysis, and their experts have previously found a wide range of deadly chemicals such as blue printer ink, brick dust, floor wax and even rat poison. Maybe the most shocking of all was one infamous batch of pills being flogged in South Korea, partly made from the remains of human foetuses. Perhaps this will make people think twice before buying cheap knock-off erectile dysfunction drugs from illegal websites.

Taking the fight to the counterfeiters and their illegal websites, Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy are delighted to announce we now offer generic sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra) for the staggering cheap price of just £1.35* a tablet! So cheap it is practically a giveaway and therefore there is no reason to look elsewhere and buy cheap dangerous pills from untrusted sources purely for their inexpensive price.

With the current dire financial climate and many people out of work, it is completely understandable that many of us wish to save money where we can, but this saved money can’t be taken to the grave with you after you have ingested counterfeit drugs and suffered a fatal reaction.

“I can buy Viagra cheap from my mate down the pub” or “Yes I’ve taken Viagra, I got Kamagra from my mate” are two things Medical Specialists™ often hear from men seeking our help with their impotence problems. Mates down the pub are not doctors, pharmacists, or will enquire about your medical history or what other medications you may be taking.

For instance, Nitrates (taken for angina) can actually react with Viagra and cause a sudden drop in blood pressure, leading to a heart attack. And for the record, bear in mind that Kamagra is not Viagra and is not licensed in the UK. Therefore it is illegal to buy it or be in possession of it.

In-house GMC-registered doctors are available at Medical Specialists™ to carefully review your consultation and suitability for not just ED treatments, but indeed any prescription-only medication. Your health and wellbeing are put first, unlike that mate down the pub who just wants to make a few quid regardless of if you might suffer with heart or brain damage.

The popular Bury-based pharmacy caters for thousands of patients all across the globe, and as such, does not want to see all these unsuspecting men parting with their cash for cheap, dangerous Viagra knock-offs because their budget will just not allow for the ‘genuine’ article – Pfizer’s Viagra or other genuine UK-made sildenafil-based medicines.

In fact when the UK patient expired last year for Viagra, Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy introduced other erectile dysfunction medications that contained sildenafil – for only fraction of the cost! This resulted in a surge in demand for these inexpensive medications that contained sildenafil.

Men suffering from impotence probably thought things couldn’t get any better for their wallet…think again!

There are actually currently 27 UK manufacturers licensed to manufacture sildenafil, including the more well-known Teva sildenafil and Actavis sildenafil, and patients with Medical Specialists™ can now benefit from further slashed prices of generic sildenafil! Yes, all patients old and new can obtain generic sildenafil at rock bottom prices, if they don’t mind which particular manufacturer they receive, but all are UK-produced and contain the exact same active ingredient.

At just £1.35* per tablet of generic sildenafil, this is without doubt a lot cheaper than both buying from your mates and attempting to smuggle counterfeits into the country and if caught, being hit with thousands of pounds in fines and even a prison sentence.