Here’s a quick drug-news roundup:

More than two-thirds of patients who took an experimental impotence drug were able to have sex within 15 minutes, according to Vivus, the company that’s developing the drug. (Among patients who took a placebo, the success rate within 15 minutes was less than one third, by the way.) Impotence drugs such as Pfizer’s Viagra and Eli Lilly’s Cialis can take hours to work, so faster onset could be a selling point, Dow Jones Newswires notes. Still, the company has yet to file for FDA approval of the drug, avanafil, and a decision from the FDA isn’t likely until next year. And Viagra will lose patent protection in 2012, which will bring generic competition to the field.

The FDA approved Actemra for rheumatoid arthritis patients who need more treatment after trying a drug like J&J’s Remicade or Abbott’s Humira. Those drugs block something called tumor necrosis factor; Actemra, sold by Roche, blocks another substance, interleukin-6.

Novartis started selling a new antipsychotic drug called Fanapt in the U.S. While this isn’t particularly surprising — the FDA approved the drug last year to treat schizophrenia — the backstory is interesting. According to the Washington Post, Novartis actually sold the rights to the drug a while back, to a company called Vanda that was founded by an MD — who used to work for Novartis. Last year, Novartis acquired the rights to sell Fanapt in the U.S. and Canada.

Photo: iStockphoto

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