Award for most entertaining headline?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 9:58 am

This surely qualifies as one of the most amusing headlines I have ever seen.....:laugh:

[url="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,19699681,00.html"]Viagra's Rub-on Rival Begins to Firm Up[/url]

Carl Mortished, London
06jul06

FIRST there were potions, then pumps, then pills. But finding help for problems with sexual arousal could soon be as easy as buying toothpaste - with the arrival of an impotence treatment in a tube.

A gel expected to become the world's first over-the-counter medication for erectile dysfunction was announced to a clamour of excitement from pharmaceutical executives and claims of a new sexual revolution.

The non-prescription treatment, which would be available from pharmacies and supermarkets, will bring anti-impotence treatments into the consumer mainstream as never before if it passes clinical trials.

The gel, which is codenamed MED2002, is being developed by Futura Medical in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline and is designed to be applied directly to the penis.

If successful, it will go into direct competition with lucrative drugs such as Viagra, Pfizer's famous little blue pill, in the multi-billion-dollar market for anti-impotence treatments.

The product is based on glyceryl trinitrate, or GTN, which dilates blood vessels and has been used for the treatment of angina for more than 40 years.

Viagra was also originally developed as a heart drug but during clinical trials it was found to have interesting side effects. Since it was introduced in 1998, it has been prescribed to more than 23million men.

Viagra's success also generated a grey market of counterfeit products to satisfy the huge demand for impotence treatment from men unwilling to attend a GP's surgery.

Such potentially embarrassing face-to-face consultations are avoided with non-prescription medicines, which backers of MED2002 see as key to gaining a significant market share.

About 1500 men are expected to be recruited into three clinical studies of MED2002, the first of which will begin before the end of this year. The goal is to have collected enough data on the safety and effectiveness of the gel for it to be filed for regulatory approval in 2008.

As well as monitoring the use of MED2002 on male users, the trials will also study its effects on women, who will come into contact with the gel during sex.

The deal signed between Futura, a small British sexual health specialist, and GSK will offer the pharmaceutical giant two first-refusal rights on twoother products in early-stage development - a non-prescription treatment for female sexual dysfunction and a treatment for premature ejaculation.

MED2002 could be in the shops within three years.

The Times

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:28 am

But a fairly uninspiring name for the actual subject, I see

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:32 pm

I'm glad someone still finds puns amusing. I've personally attempted to claw my eyes out several times while reading uninspired articles filled with even more uninspired puns.

The exceptions are the ones made in absolutely horrible taste. For some reason reading something about some poor soul losing a leg in an unfortunate accident becomes funny when the author decides to use the phrase "on a limb".

Chimaera182 · Post by **Chimaera182** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:58 pm

[QUOTE=Vicsun]The exceptions are the ones made in absolutely horrible taste. For some reason reading something about some poor soul losing a leg in an unfortunate accident becomes funny when the author decides to use the phrase "on a limb".[/QUOTE]
LoL yeah, that would appeal to my bad taste, too. Like the time in Sex and the City, when that woman said, "I'm so bored I could die," and then five seconds later falls out of a window and plummets to her death. I cannot stop laughing when I see that. It's not really a pun, but it's in pretty bad taste.

Tower_Master · Post by **Tower_Master** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:19 am

I'm just waiting for the day that some poor company mixes up the packaging and puts toothpaste in the..."gel", I guess it's called...tubes, and vice versa...

"Honey, this stuff isn't working like it's supposed to, but at least I'm minty fresh...and it seems to have some sort of whitening effect???"

Here's hoping your teeth don't get to "hard", and all that.

ik911 · Post by **ik911** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:24 am

Nice to see you're still alive, TM, although I fail to see how you got to toothpaste after reading that article....

Tower_Master · Post by **Tower_Master** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:00 pm

Erection gel would be dispensed from tubes. Toothpaste comes in tubes. Tubes also rhymes with "newbs", a word with a spelling I have yet to figure out. The logic is inescapable

It's good to be alive, though - especially after a vicious battle with circus peanut addiction. Woah unto man. How've you been, mate?