Expert advisory: FDA public hearings on “pink Viagra”

The following University of Victoria expert is available to discuss the joint public hearing of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review Sprout Pharmaceuticals’ application for flibanserin, a sexual pharmaceutical drug for women often dubbed “the pink Viagra.”

Thea Cacchioni (Dept. of Women’s Studies) is a sociologist who studies the medicalization of sex and specifically, explanations of women's sexual ‘dysfunction’ and critical explorations of pharmaceutical interventions in sexuality.

She can discuss her opposition to flibanserin on the grounds of weak effectiveness relative to placebo and an unacceptable safety profile. She can also comment on Sprout’s claims that the FDA is “sexist” because it has approved sexual medicine drugs for men and not women. She testified in 2010 to the FDA against flibanserin, a drug that was developed but never approved as an anti-depressant and is now proposed to treat hypo-active sexual desire disorder in pre-menopausal women. It has been twice-rejected by the committee.

She is available at tcacchio@uvic.ca

-- 30 --