the active ingredient sildenafil citrate broke down fat tissue

Viagra to treat cellulite? Hmmm, we all said in unison when this was thrown to the floor at this morning’s Ukmedix Newsroom meeting!  Tell us more we said!

According to a team of scientists working in Croatia the world’s best selling erectile dysfunction medication could have a useful application in breaking down cellulite. They base their idea on the fact that when they conducted clinical tests in test tubes using the active ingredient sildenafil citrate it broke down fat tissue. Coupled with the fact that Viagra can also improve blood flow they say that it is possible that by making a special anti-cellulite topical cream to be applied on problem areas they may be able to get rid of it.

Professor Karmela Altabas along with a group of colleagues working at the Sisters of Charity University Hospital located in Zagreb have been discussing and publicising their idea in the hope that a pharmaceutical company will take up the challenge and fund proper clinical testing.

The unanimous opinion of the Ukmedix News team was that this idea is a complete waste of time and extremely unlikely to produce any significant benefits to men and women who suffer from cellulite. We also would like to point out that the active ingredient of Viagra is still under patent and therefore belongs to the drug company Pfizer and therefore any medication which derives from Viagra would need to be licensed by Pfizer before it could be given a commercial application. Therefore the only people that Professor Karmela Altabas should be discussing her idea with is Pfizer based in New York.

However at the same time we would like to point out that while this idea is almost certainly likely to fail it is worth remembering that the majority of the world’s best drug inventions came around by accident as a result of clinical testing for some other reason.  It may therefore be an interesting idea for Pfizer to allow this clinical testing idea to go ahead just to see what happens?!