Federal Panel Votes Against 'Female Viagra'

A federal advisory panel unanimously voted not to recommend approving a new drug to treat low libido in women—suggesting further research by manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim, a German pharmaceutical company. The panel, the Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee, serves as an adviser to the FDA, and it echoed the recommendation of an FDA staff report on the drug earlier this week. The panel concluded that the drug’s positive effects were “not robust enough to justify the risks,” which include dizziness, nausea, and fatigue, The New York Times reports. The drug, initially meant to be an antidepressant, aims to rev up sexual desire in premenopausal women.