Latest news with #Viagra
Axios
14 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
Drug prices likely to rise with tariffs on EU
The trade deal between the U.S. and the European Union could hit the pharmaceutical industry with billions in new costs and ultimately drive up prices and limit access. Why it matters: Drugmakers have been heavily reliant on foreign countries' manufacturing and raw materials, most of it duty-free. Those free-trade policies are on the way out as the U.S. prepares to impose a 15% tariff on U.S.-bound imports of branded drugs from Europe. Driving the news: Wall Street analysts estimated the tariff deal could cost the industry between $13 billion and $19 billion, Reuters reported on Monday. "The big picture is: The cost of imported drugs is about to become more expensive for all Americans," Joe Brusuelas, principal and chief economist for RSM US, told Axios. Europe is among the biggest sources of branded drugs and their ingredients for the U.S. Ireland alone accounted for about $50 billion of U.S. pharma imports last year. Pharma giants like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson have made Ireland a major manufacturing hub and source of cancer drugs, insulin, Viagra and Botox. Denmark is home of Novo Nordisk, which makes the blockbuster GLP-1 drugs Ozempic and Wegovy as well as much of the U.S. insulin supply. The immunosuppressive drug Humira is made in Germany, while Bavarian Nordic's Jynneos, a vaccine for smallpox and mpox, is largely made in Denmark, per Reuters research. Between the lines: The details of the trade deal with the EU still are being hammered out. The new tariffs wouldn't apply to certain generic drugs, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday. The announcement left the door open for President Trump to impose even higher tariffs. Trump had recently threatened to impose 200% tariffs on pharma. "I think the PBMs are going to start to have conversations with manufacturers about increasing those prices," said Ryan Maizel, senior director of advisory services at Model N. But there are too many unknowns for any real action yet. "I don't see anyone doing anything until we see that these deals are worth the paper that eventually they're going to be written on," Marc Busch, a Georgetown University authority on international trade policy, told Axios. Manufacturers will have to game out whether to take on major one-time expenses of moving their production, as well as whether to pass along future higher costs for certain drugs. That's a process that will almost certainly take place between industry lobbyists and policymakers in Washington, Brusuelas said. "The inside-the-Beltway horse trading is going to go on," he said. Industry trade group PhRMA did not return a request for comment. The new EU tariffs will affect items like packaging or plastics used for bottles or blister packs, which could influence the cost of low-priced generics and over-the-counter products made in the EU, Maizel said. What to watch: The industry is still closely watching the administration's Section 232 investigation that could end with a recommendation to put a certain tariff rate on drug imports from China and India. Oral arguments will also be heard this week in a lawsuit challenging Trump's authority using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping "reciprocal" tariffs, CNBC reported. "If the IEEPA tariffs are taken down then I don't even know what the status of these deals will be," Busch said. "Trump will obviously get very angry, and I don't know how he backfills."
Mint
3 days ago
- Health
- Mint
Manu Joseph: Why drugs that eat our hunger won't cause a revolution
Two drugs are generating the sort of cultural excitement that only Viagra once did. Like Viagra, their effects are visible, and often not attributed to the medicine. Semaglutide and Tirzepatide, known by their brand names Ozempic and Mounjaro, were designed to treat diabetes. But as often happens with iconic drugs, their fame lies in what they do on the side. They reduce appetite. So, people eat less and lose weight. Doctors are taking these drugs too, which is a good sign. Not that they are paragons of health, but they know how patients respond to the drugs and so it suggests they consider them safe. Meanwhile, society is bracing for a behavioural revolution. A certain leanness—a non-muscular kind in middle-aged people that I already associate with these drugs—might become another motif of wealth. At the moment, the drugs are for the affluent, but that can change over time. There is even a view that once these drugs go off patent and generics flood the market, they may hurt the restaurant business. Also Read: What body positivity means in the age of Ozempic I doubt that. I think their impact will be modest. People do not eat because they're hungry, especially the rich. Even most of the poor no longer eat out of necessity alone. Nobody eats maida noodles and biryani out of hunger. For most people, eating is a form of entertainment. Even a source of happiness. Many people can bear the period between meals because they know food is coming. Many keep eating through the day because people do a lot of what is fun. Also, food is the most legit drug addiction. Some years ago, Silicon Valley fell in love with a powdered food called Soylent. Just add water and drink. It was engineered to provide all the nutrients the body needs. As the product didn't ship to India, I found an Indian version of it. I carried packets everywhere. I was sorted, I felt. I liked the idea of just drinking food and being done with it. I had defeated an ancient cultural force that had entrapped me through what I always viewed as an obsolete mode of nutrition. There is nothing wrong with Soylent, but its revolution never took off. People realized that life, as we've built it, revolves around food. Meals are where we meet. Efficiency is not the point. In fact, if we are efficient at all, it is in matters other than food, so that we can lavish our time on food. At first glance, drugs that kill appetite may appear to be different from a tasteless drink that merely has everything the body needs. The drugs don't replace food. People would still eat tasty meals, even if they eat less. They would meet friends over meals, but leave most of it on their plates. At first, people will be alright with it. They are having it all, they might say. Tasty food, but in forced moderation. Eventually, though, they would have had enough of it. Also Read: Ozempic, a patent challenge, and the $25 billion race for India's weight-loss drug market Semaglutide and Tirzepatide cannot address the underlying reasons why people eat and overeat. Imagine a pill that makes you want to watch less TV. Let us assume it works. What is the alternative to not wasting time on boring entertainment, an oxymoron that is the reality of the times? Actually, there is something that makes you want to watch less TV, and that's TV itself. Yet, people have nothing better to do. It is the same with food. Without food, life is so dreary to most people that they will eat even if they don't feel like eating. This is something they already do, anyway. Here is what will happen. These drugs will make the fit fitter. People who already work towards health or beauty will be the true beneficiaries of this medical intervention. Others will do things like having only desserts for meals, arguing that they are going to have little to eat anyway. Eventually, they will find ways to malign these drugs. They will have exaggerated complaints about their side effects and romanticize 'natural' hunger. They will insist the body knows best. If it is asking for food, they will say, and if 'nature' is demanding food, then there must be some reason; how can we let 'chemicals' come in the way of natural appetite? Never underestimate the things sugar can make people do. The effectiveness of these drugs raises an interesting question: If suppressing appetite still leaves a person healthy, then is normal eating just a form of overeating? How much food does a person really need? Also Read: Mounjaro in India: The speed bumps impacting access to weight loss drugs Probably far less than what most people eat. Statistically, on any given day, we over-eat or under-eat because, outside of theory, balance is not a real thing. Under-eating has its own risks. Muscle growth, for example, needs protein beyond the reduced consumption these drugs would induce. Strong muscles aren't just about vanity, they help regulate metabolism and maintain our health. Also, when the body faces an energy deficit, it does not simply burn fat. It switches some things off. Based on its own logic and hierarchies, it starts conserving energy by cutting what it considers less important. Like one's immune response. Or skin quality. Or hair health. It adapts to scarcity by becoming stingy with its resources. The same could happen here. People may stay lean but become weak, metabolically and bodily. We may then have unfit people who look thin. We may not understand what's been lost either. That will take years to discover. Also Read: 'We shouldn't use Mounjaro as a way to get skinny': Dr Alexandra Sowa If some people believe they look good just by taking a drug, they may stop working out if they have never enjoyed it. That would be a disaster. Exercise doesn't just burn fat. It does things modern life does not give us. Our true health is not what we appear to be, but what the body knows it has gone through, what it knows it can endure. The author is a journalist, novelist, and the creator of the Netflix series, 'Decoupled'
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Indian Express
2 Bangladeshi smugglers shot dead on Tripura border during smuggling bid
The Border Security Force on Thursday night shot dead two suspected Bangladeshi smugglers while trying to cross the international border in Tripura during an alleged smuggling of Viagra pills. They also seized the contraband worth nearly Rs 14-15 lakh. One of the deceased, identified as Litan Miah, whose body was found on the Indian side, was handed over to Bangladesh following a post-mortem. The other Bangladeshi citizen who managed to cross the border succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, two Indian smugglers were arrested on Friday in connection with a smuggling attempt in South Tripura district, the police said on Saturday. They were booked under different charges, including the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, Passport (Entry into India)Act, and attempt to murder and produced before a local court the next day. 'A case was lodged at Belonia police station on Friday, and two Indian smugglers were arrested', said a senior police officer of South Tripura district. According to sources, the Bangladeshi men turned violent and attacked a BSF personnel posted on duty in the area on Thursday night as he tried to intercept them, noting that a group of 10-15 people from the Bangladesh side was trying to smuggle contraband materials over the barbed wire fencing using wooden planks. While no BSF official was available for comments, a source in the border guarding agency said that the BSF jawan was forced to shoot at the miscreants in self-defence. 'The BSF jawan saw an ongoing smuggling activity in progress and, upon challenging them to halt said activity and surrender, they started to hurl abuses and tried to intimidate him physically from both sides of the border. He fired towards the Bangladesh side, in which a miscreant was killed on the spot, while a few others were injured, and it was known later that another had died after running back deep inside the neighbouring country,' the source said. In March, a BSF jawan and a Bangladeshi miscreant were injured in a clash at Tripura's Sepahijala district after BSF jawans opened fire with a non-lethal weapon during an ongoing smuggling bid. In April last year, a clash between BSF personnel close to the Indo-Bangla international border in Sepahijala district left one dead and another injured with a heavy bullet injury. Tripura shares an 856-km-long international border with Bangladesh, parts of which are still unfenced in patches due to local disputes.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Two Bangladeshi nationals killed near Tripura border during alleged smuggling attempt
Agartala: Two Bangladeshi nationals were killed and one injured in an encounter near the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura on Thursday while allegedly attempting to smuggle goods, including Viagra tablets worth ₹14–15 lakh, into South Tripura district, police said. Police said that a group from Bangladesh, with the help of Indians, tried to cross the international border on Thursday night. (Representative photo) The following day two suspected smugglers were arrested from South Tripura district. 'The two Indian smugglers are suspected to be staying near the border areas. A case was lodged at the Belonia police station,' a senior police officer said. Police said that a group from Bangladesh, with the help of Indians, tried to cross the international border on Thursday night. 'Even after the Border Security Force (BSF) warned them, they allegedly attacked the personnel with sharp weapons, injuring a BSF member. The BSF opened fire in self-defence,' a senior police officer said. 'Litan Miah died on the spot, while two others injured were admitted to a hospital in Bangladesh where one died during treatment,' the officer said, adding that Miah's body, recovered from Indian territory, was handed over to Bangladesh after postmortem. An FIR was registered under The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, Passport (Entry into India) Act, and attempt to murder under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Also Read: Tripura: 15-member team to identify, deport illegal immigrants from border district Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, in May, had said that no illegal immigrants from Bangladesh or Rohingyas from Myanmar or any other country would be allowed to enter the state under any condition, and if they infiltrate Indian territory, they would be pushed back as per the law. Tripura shares an 856-kilometre border with Bangladesh, second only to West Bengal. While most parts of the border in Tripura have been covered by barbed wire fencing, some stretches remain unfenced due to local disputes. According to a police report, foreign nationals often cross into districts like Sepahijala, West, South, Unakoti, and Dhalai. They often use Tripura as a corridor to move to different parts of the country in search of jobs, shelter, and a place to settle.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Scientists uncover 'natural' Viagra that can cure erectile dysfunction without taking the little blue pill
Scientists have discovered that building muscle could serve as a natural alternative to Viagra. A team of researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, went about exploring the link between muscle quality and erectile dysfunction (ED), suffered by more than 18million men in the US over the age of 20. ED includes the inability to get an erection or the inability to maintain one. One of the most common medications for erectile dysfunction are phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitors, such as sildenafil (Viagra). But these drugs often trigger a range of side effects including headaches, feeling sick, indigestion and dizziness. They are also expensive, costing $65 to $140 per tablet for brand-name Viagra and $4 to $10 per tablet for generic sildenafil. In the new study, researchers looked at 32 previous studies linking men's muscular strength to sexual function. They found that cross-sectional studies using testing metrics such as muscle volume and hand-grip strength (HGS) showed strong correlations between muscle parameters and erectile function, sexual desire, and overall sexual satisfaction. After looking at the evidence, the research team concluded that there is a positive correlation between erectile function and muscle health. They explained: 'Maintaining skeletal muscle with nutrition and physical activity improves erectile and overall health outcomes. 'Therapies that target sexual function and muscle health simultaneously (eg, testosterone and L-carnitine) may further benefit sexual function. 'Future studies are warranted to strengthen and elucidate this relationship and to follow the longitudinal outcomes of these therapies on sexual health.' The link between erectile dysfunction and exercise isn't new. 'We published a paper about a year and a half ago, showing that exercise significantly reverses erectile dysfunction,' study co-author Dr Mohit Khera told Men's Health. Exercise can play a significant role in improving erectile dysfunction by positively impacting several key areas. Regular physical activity can improve blood flow, reduce inflammation, manage weight, and address psychological factors, all of which contribute to erectile function. Dr Khera added: 'While higher testosterone levels from strength training may play a minor role, the primary benefits are derived from improved vascular health.' His past research found that 160 minutes of exercise a week, including strength training, significantly improved erectile function in men. 'Notably, those with the most severe erectile dysfunction experienced the greatest improvements through regular exercise,' he says. Along with working out, the researchers found diet can also play a role in erectile dysfunction. The study found L-carnitine, an amino acid found in red meat, poultry, and fish, may help work as a remedy for ED, too. Erectile dysfunction is very common and often affects men over 40 years old. In the US, more than 3.5 million prescriptions for sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra) were filled in 2022. Most men struggle to get or keep an erection at some point. This can be caused by stress, fatigue or drinking too much alcohol. However, if it is a frequent occurrence, it may be a result of high blood pressure or cholesterol, diabetes, depression or anxiety and hormones problems, and is something that can be discussed with a healthcare provider. Drugs on the market for ED include Viagra, which is part of a drug class called PDE5 inhibitors. They work by blocking an enzyme that restricts blood flow to the penis, by blocking it, the normal function can resume and the penis can be become erect. Side effects can include headaches, sickness, hot flushes, indigestion, a stuffy nose or feeling dizzy. Over recent years, health experts have warned of a staggering rise in erectile problems in young men. According to doctors, watching pornography is driving a wave of erectile dysfunction. UK-based Dr Babak Ashrafi said there had been an 46 percent increase in men under the age of 30 currently seeking help for erectile dysfunction compared to last year. But Dr Babak said a spike in younger men experiencing the problem could be linked to the 'exponential' consumption of explicit online material. 'Despite men between the ages of 45 and 54 being the most likely to suffer from erectile difficulties, younger male audiences are increasingly requesting treatment,' he said. Dr Babak explained that while occasional pornography viewing was harmless, frequent or marathon sessions could retrain men's brains and prevent them from becoming aroused normally. 'Repeated overexposure to graphic content can over time make it harder for individuals to become aroused by real-life sexual experiences,' he said. The family doctor added that porn could also be giving men unrealistic perceptions about their manhood, or how long they should last in bed.
