An experimental drug intended to boost a woman’s sex drive that has twice been rejected by the Food and Drug Administration since 2010 is now just a few tweaks away from being approved.
It’s called flibanserin, a name that ironically decreases sex drive upon hearing it.
The little pink pill was granted conditional approval by the FDA yesterday, the condition being that the drug’s developer, Sprout Pharmaceuticals, reduce its side effects.
These include dizziness and fainting – great reactions to sex, not great symptoms of a pill to improve sex.
A significant argument among women’s groups advocating for the pill’s approval was based on the gender bias surrounding the availability of sexual dysfunction drugs for females.
“I should be able to determine if flibanserin is worth the benefit of treatment,” said Amanda Parrish, who was one of 11,000 women to participate in clinical trials of flibanserin.
For Parrish, it seemed to be pretty beneficial: “What a relationship-saving eight months that was,” she said after completing a clinical trial of the pill to revive her sexually waning second marriage.
Men, of course, can access Viagra like candy, and have many alternative drugs available to boost their sex drive. Flibanserin would be the first drug of its kind for women to increase their libido.