Vivus Shares Tumble On MUSE Concerns

Vivus has become the latest biopharmaceutical company to suffer from ayo-yoing share price. The company's shares climbed to over $80 after it launched its non-invasive treatment for impotence, MUSE (alprostadil) in the USA in January, but retreated just as swiftly after a Barron's article indicated that more convenient treatments might soon be available.

Unlike current treatments for impotence which must be injected into the penis, MUSE delivers the drug into the urethra. The current popularity of MUSE will be a moot point in two years, according to Dr Harin Padma-Nathan, the lead author of the study which secured approval for the drug and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Southern California, because of new oral impotence drugs in the offing from Pfizer (sildenafil) and others, which could reach the market next year.

Barron's reported that even Dr Padma-Nathan tells his patients that MUSE is less effective than intrapenile injection therapy and may cause even more pain. Only 5%-10% of his patients now opt for MUSE.