Now 'Viagra' for women

A German pharmaceutical giant wants to sell a drug with the decidedly unsexy name "flibanserin," which has shown prowess for sparking a woman's sexual desire by fiddling with her brain chemicals.

A Good news for women those who want to perk up the action in their bedroom-the Food and Drug Administration committee is thinking of endorsing the first pill designed to do for women what Viagra does for men-boost their sex lives.

"Achieving a happy and healthy sex life can be a real and important problem for some women. But we have lots of questions about the 'pink Viagra,'" the Washington Post quoted Amy Allina of the National Women's Health Network, a Washington-based advocacy group, as saying.

Viagra's catapult to blockbuster status after its 1998 approval set off a flurry of interest in me-too medications for women.

However, drugmaker Pfizer's hopes that its "little blue pill" would also ignite female libido fizzled, making it clear that a woman's sexuality is more complicated than a man's.

But, Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim is optimistic that flibanserin is on the verge of becoming the first prescription medication to tap what some have estimated could be a 2 billion dollar market in the United States alone.

"We believe women deserve options and we're hoping flibanserin may represent a safe and effective option for many women," said Michael Sand, who heads the company's clinical research on flibanserin.