Ten years of Viagra - Little blue pill may yet offer more

IT HAS been used by more than 30 million men and exists only because of side effects discovered in a Welsh village while testing a drug aimed at treating angina.

It has given rise to more than 30 million bad jokes and it is still, sometimes ever so tenuously, involved with affairs of the heart.

Viagra may become far more than a treatment for male impotence. Ten years on it may turn out to be as versatile as aspirin. Conditions being assessed for treatment with the little blue pill include jet lag, heart failure, premature ejaculation, diabetes symptoms, multiple sclerosis, pain, premature birth, chronic pelvic pain, memory loss, Reynaud’s phenomenon, and strokes.