As news emerged that babies and children around the world have been prescribed the impotence drug Viagra for a life threatening lung condition, experts were said to be concerned about the dangers, pointing out that this use of the drug has not been investigated with clinical trials.
New Scientist magazine listed a number of centres where Viagra has been used to treat pulmonary hypertension (PHT) in children.
PHT is a potentially fatal condition caused by a build up of blood pressure in the lungs which can lead to so-called ”blue babies”.
In an online report, New Scientist said children as young as six-weeks-old had been treated with Viagra at The Royal Brompton Hospital in London, Boston Children’s Hospital, Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, and the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi, India.
Alan Magee at the Royal Brompton told the magazine that he had treated five children, all of whom reported ”significant improvement”. But Raanan Gillon, emeritus professor of medical ethics at Imperial College London, had reservations: ”There are circumstances in which it is morally justifiable to try new treatments when there is an impression that a drug may save a life,” he said. ”But the danger of doing so without a clinical trial is that your impression may be wrong.”
His view was echoed by Evangelos Michelakis, a cardiologist at the University of Alberta in Canada who studied the effects of Viagra on 13 adults with primary PHT. He said Viagra worked better than nitric oxide, the standard treatment for PHT, and was longer lasting. But he was worried about the drug being given to newborns.
”It is dangerous because doctors cannot know what dosage to give, how long to give it, and what the long-term effects might be,” he told the magazine.
The treatment of babies with Viagra despite the lack of clinical trials highlighted a wider issue, said New Scientist. It was estimated that 90% of all drugs used on newborns and half those prescribed for children are only licensed for adults, or for other illnesses.
The magazine said it had learned that Viagra trials involving children were due to start in the next few months. Pfizer, the company that makes Viagra, confirmed it was funding an adult trial but would only say it hoped to pursue trials in children. – Sapa-DPA