The potential market for Zydena could be huge

At Ukmedix News we have previously written about the pharmaceutical company Dong-A PharmTech based in South Korea which produces an erectile dysfunction drug called Zydena. Zydena which goes by the scientific name udenafil is a phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor or PDE-5 inhibitor which means that it works in the same way as the other erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.

Just recently the company authorised to act on the half of Dong-A PharmTech in Europe has started clinical testing to get approval from the EMEA in Europe so that it can be sold not as an erectile dysfunction medication but as a drug to treat men and women suffering from portal hypertension occurring as a result of liver disease.

The Zydena drug has been approved for use to treat men with erectile dysfunction in South Korea but has not been given approval in Europe or America yet. At present clinical testing is being done in America to determine whether it will be given permission to be sold by the Food & Drug Administration over there for erectile dysfunction. It is presently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials.

Zydena has been sold in South Korea since the end of 2005 and has a market share of about a quarter in the country. The Zydena drug is not being tested for erectile dysfunction in Europe but it is likely that at some point in the future clinical trials will begin.

The potential market for Zydena could be huge and this is partly due to the fact that it can be produced for much cheaper than the erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.  In South Korea part of its popularity is that it is considerably less expensive when compared to the imported western erectile dysfunction drugs. In South Korea Zydena is more popular than the erectile dysfunction drug Levitra, nevertheless Viagra and Cialis still retain larger market shares.