Pfizer (PFE): Viagra Can Make Men Hard Of Hearing

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Pfizer (PFE) has a new ad campaign for its erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. The marketing message is all over TV and in little video clips online. Reuters.com appears to have one of the ads on every page. It is an nauseating vignette of several men, about 50 years old, singing the praises of the ED-drug while playing a guitar, piano, and bass. "Viva Viagra" indeed.

Now word comes that Viagra and other ED drugs can make some men hard of hearing. That may be a blessing when one of the "Viva Viagra" ads comes onto a TV or PC screen.

In an alert from FDA Medwatch, the agency wrote that it had informed healthcare professionals of reports of sudden decreases or loss of hearing following the use of PDE5 inhibitors Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. In some cases, the sudden hearing loss was accompanied by tinnitus and dizziness.

Perhaps Pfizer’s investors will be listening for news of the next Viagra side-effect.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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