Battle to get ‘feminine Viagra’ to market — and how ‘Grey’s Anatomy’…
You’ve heard of the little blue capsule. Now, a new documentary is popping the highlight on the pink one.
Men have had pharmaceutical choices for erectile dysfunction for many years — Viagra and Cialis are just a few.
But a feminine libido capsule has been more elusive. Enter Addyi.
Addyi has undergone a few makeovers before hitting pharmacy cabinets. It was as soon as an antidepressant before evolving into medication to handle low intercourse drive. Courtesy of Paramount
While medication like Viagra work by growing blood stream to the genitals, the daily pink capsule focuses on brain-based approaches to deal with hypoactive sexual want dysfunction.
HSDD is characterised by low or no intercourse drive for a minimum of six months. Even as the condition impacts about 10% of women, Addyi endured a troublesome six-year journey to securing approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
“The Pink Pill: Sex, Drugs & Who Has Control” — premiering Friday on Paramount+ — explores the obstacles that Addyi overcame, thanks to a persistent advertising and marketing campaign that highlighted gender bias in drug approvals.
What is Addyi?
The German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim initially developed the capsule as an antidepressant. It wasn’t discovered to be efficient in scientific trials, so it was repurposed to handle HSDD.
Known clinically as flibanserin, the medication is designed to assist steadiness neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine to increase sexual want.
It failed to win FDA approval in 2010 because it wasn’t shown to considerably improve daily sexual want.
Sprout Pharmaceuticals co-founder Cindy Eckert spearheaded the profitable campaign to get Addyi authorised by the Food and Drug Administration. Courtesy of Paramount
The company also expressed concern about potential facet effects like dizziness, fainting and unintended injury and the drug interacting with alcohol and other medication.
Following the FDA rejection, Boehringer Ingelheim bought the flibanserin rights to Sprout Pharmaceuticals.
Sprout co-founder Cindy Eckert took the reins and named the capsule for Kate Walsh’s “Grey’s Anatomy” character, Addison Montgomery.
“I liked that she lives life on her own terms, so we called it Addyi,” Eckert said in the documentary.
How did it lastly win FDA approval?
The identify change — and the extra research and data Sprout submitted — didn’t change the FDA’s thoughts about the potential dangers of Addyi. The company denied approval again in 2013.
Sprout then took a different tact with its “female Viagra.” The company launched the “Even the Score” PR campaign that proclaimed that it was sexist to have many medication for male sexual dysfunction however none for women.
The rallying cry was: “Women have waited long enough.” The initiative even went as far as to parody Viagra advertisements. The blitz labored — to a level.
This little pink capsule has been the topic of a prolonged battle about the best method to deal with sexual want issues. AP
In 2015, the FDA authorised Addyi to deal with HSDD in premenopausal women. But it was given a “black box” warning — the highest security warning — due to the dangers of low blood pressure and fainting when blended with alcohol.
Prescribers and pharmacists had to endure particular training to educate sufferers on the dangers of mixing Addyi with alcohol.
Following the FDA approval, Valeant Pharmaceuticals acquired Sprout for roughly $1 billion.
The hopes had been high, however Addyi sales fell far in need of expectations thanks to a big worth hike and mismanaged advertising and marketing. Sprout was ultimately returned to its unique shareholders.
Eckert continued her push — and FDA approval was expanded in December 2025 to embody postmenopausal women under 65.
The expansion got here even after the FDA despatched a warning letter to Eckert last yr about a social media put up that “created a misleading impression regarding the safety and effectiveness of Addyi.”
What are the highlights of the documentary?
Directed by Canadian filmmaker Aisling Chin-Yee, “The Pink Pill” gained the Audience Award at the DOC NYC movie competition in November.
The most compelling elements of the 88-minute documentary are the women who emotionally shared their struggles with HSDD, including a breast cancer survivor who underwent surgical menopause and a lady who confronted divorce because of her low intercourse drive.
Not everybody was swayed. “Hecklers” had been shown dismissing these considerations and suggesting a number of methods to increase low libido without medication — like switching boyfriends, consuming chocolate, consuming espresso, watching sure episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy,” studying erotica and getting a new vibrator.
“That’s all saying, ‘You’re doing something wrong, and it’s your fault,’” Eckert said in the doc. “That was hard to watch.”
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