Female viagra will take years to reach India: Doctors

New Delhi: The newly-developed female viagra "Addyi" will take at least three to four years to be introduced in the Indian market as trials are still on to ascertain its long-term effects, doctors said on Thursday.

And even if the female viagra pills do increase libido in females as has been claimed, it will take time for the Indian female population to accept it due to existing social unacceptance on such issues, they said. "It will take three to four years for the female viagra to come to India as the clearance by the Drugs Controller General of India is a must," J.B. Sharma, a professor of gynaecology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, told IANS.

"Also there exists a lot of social unacceptance in the Indian society, which needs to be overcome before making the medicine a success," Sharma said.

He said approximate 20-30 percent of the Indian female population suffer from problems related to lack of sexual desires. "Addyi" is the first female viagra developed and it has been approved by the US-Food and Drugs Administration. Under a US FDA-imposed safety plan, doctors will only be able to prescribe "Addyi" after completing an online certification process that requires counselling patients about the medicine's risks.

Pharmacists will also need certification and will be required to remind patients not to drink alcohol while taking the drug.

Nupur Gupta, a consultant gynaecologist at Gurgaon-based Paras Hospital, said that as the female viagra was new and still under trial, the introduction of the medicine in Indian market would take time.

"Sales in India will be slow initially. Although Indian mindset is changing as per world's advancements, we will take time as we still think that treatment is possible without medication," Gupta told IANS.