Online Pharmacy Medicine Blog

No, that headline’s not a joke. It’s true.

Viagra, Lipitor, Celebrex, Lyrica and about 70 other Pfizer-made prescription drugs are now available free of charge to Americans who’ve lost their jobs and health insurance coverage since January 1, 2009, thanks to a new program by the drugmaker.

The one caveat is that you must already be on the medication — and have been taking it for at least three months — to qualify for the free prescriptions.

According to the AP:

The 70-plus drugs covered in the program 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. Also included are some antibiotics, antidepressants, heart medications, contraceptives and smoking cessation products…

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.

Patients can call 866-706-2400 to sign up for the program.

Viagra was created to treat erectile dysfunction, generally among men middle-aged and older. Unfortunately, Pfizer’s “Viva Viagra!” ad campaigns — along with tantalizing warnings about four-hour erections — have turned the drug into a popular aphrodisiac among healthy young men.

It’s a trend that has just claimed the life of a 28-year-old Russian man. The U.K.’s Sun reports:

A sex-mad Russian died after guzzling a bottle of Viagra pills to keep him going for a 12-hour orgy with two women pals.

The women had bet mechanic Sergey Tuganov £3,000 that he wouldn’t be able to satisfy them both non-stop for the half-day sex marathon.

But minutes after winning the wager, the randy 28-year-old dropped dead with a heart attack, revealed Moscow police.

One of the women, named only as Alina, said: “We called emergency services but it was too late, there was nothing they could do.”

Chances of discouraging Viagra abuse at this point are slim, medical experts say, because the drug is mostly prescribed by general practitioners, who have little choice but to trust their patients when they say they are having erectile dysfunction problems.

What’s more, research indicates Viagra may indeed enhance sexual performance among young men — although exactly how, and how much, is undetermined.

According to news reports:

Viagra does not turn healthy guys into sexual supermen. But it certainly does something down there. To find out exactly what ED drugs do to healthy young guys, we turn to research coming out of Italy. Scientists at the University of Florence gave 60 healthy young men with no erection issues a pill that was either a 25-milligram tablet of sildenafil or a placebo. Talk about messing with people’s minds!

Anyway, the upshot was that “there were no differences between the two groups in the reported improvement of erection quality.”

However, the drug did cause “a significant reduction of the postejaculatory refractory time.” In other words, guys who got the real thing were ready for action a lot sooner than the others.

Pfizer officially discourages healthy men from taking Viagra.

Usually, when we think of young men taking Viagra, we imagine that they’re guys who don’t really need the medication for erectile dysfunction — they’re just looking for a performance boost in the bedroom.

Now imagine if you heard a young man was taking Viagra every day. What would you think then?

Well, if we’ve learned anything in the online pharmacy business over the past few years, it’s that appearances can be deceiving. And in the case of a professional baseball player named Brian Bocock, they definitely are.

Here’s Brian’s story:

Bocock … had a circulation disorder last June that caused three fingers to turn blue and forced him to miss the rest of the season.

“The doctors had me on baby aspirin, anti-inflammatories, blood thinners, and, well “… Viagra,” Bocock said.

Bocock said he took a low dosage, only 25 milligrams, but had to take it every day.

That made a trip to the pharmacy quite interesting: “I’d clean the place out. A few times, I took all they had.”

The primary indication of Viagra is treatment of erectile dysfunction, and it is now standard treatment for erectile dysfunction in all settings, including diabetes. In addition to erectile dysfunction, Viagra is also effective in treating pulmonary arterial hypertension. For treatment of this disease, it relaxes the arterial wall, leading to decreased pressure on the arteries.