Zydena is a close cousin of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra

Dong-A PharmTech Co. Ltd, the South Korean pharmaceutical company which we have written about on a number of times at Ukmedix News has taken a big step and has facilitated the start of Phase III clinical trials in the United States for its impotence medication Zydena.

Zydena which goes by the clinical name of Udenafil is a close cousin of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra and has been prescribed by doctors in South Korea since November 2005 and has also been approved in Russia since July 2008. Like the other three, Zydena is a phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitor. The new Phase III clinical trials in America will be taking place in 80 different locations and will be looking at its effectiveness as well as safety.

In all over 1,100 men suffering from erectile dysfunction will partake in a placebo controlled randomised and double blind trial. Dong-A PharmTech has teamed up with an American company Warner Chilcott in order to facilitate the drug approval process in not only America but eventually in the European Union.  They hope that all testing will be complete in a couple of years and that not only will the drug be a cheaper but just as effective version of Viagra but could also be used to treat people who suffer from pulmonary arterial hypertension like Revatio.

It is not clear whether Dong-A PharmTech intend to price Zydena significantly below Viagra, Cialis and Levitra but in view of the fact that the other three are so successful they are unlikely to take any serious market share in the erectile dysfunction market of America or Europe unless they are significantly discounted.

Most men who enjoy success with one of the three established impotence medications tend to stick with their medication rather than experiment with new ones and this is a challenge which Dong-A PharmTech will have to overcome if it is serious about good sales.