BREAKING: FDA approves 'pink Viagra,' first drug to improve libido for women

For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given its blessing to a prescription drug intended to increase sexual desire in women.
The FDA’s green light on the drug flibanserin, often known by the nickname "pink Viagra," reverses two earlier decisions to reject the medication as a treatment for hypoactive sexual desire disorder.


The decision, announced late Tuesday, comes in the wake of a public campaign that has challenged the agency to close a widening gap between the numbers of medications available for men’s sexual health and those available to women.
Flibanserin, which will be marketed as Addyi, is a once-a-day pill for women who are distressed by their low sex drive. Clinical trial data presented to the FDA showed that compared with study participants who got a sham medication, pre-menopausal women who took flibanserin reported a modest but measurable rise in sexual desire and increased the number of “sexually satisfying encounters” they had by roughly one per month.

In approving the drug on Tuesday, the FDA acknowledged it had continuing concerns about Addyi’s safety. The agency announced it had directed Sprout to conduct additional tests of the drug in women who drink alcohol. Debates over the drug’s safety have largely centered on its potential for inducing dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure.
That danger appears greatest when those taking the drug are heavy consumers of alcohol, or take CYP3A4 inhibitors, a class of drugs that includes several antifungal medications, antibiotics, HIV drugs and some blood-pressure medications.