'Enough with the Viagra references,' says the CEO behind the first FDA approved drug to boost women's sex drives
After all, it's "women and sex," a topic controversial in itself, she said on-stage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen conference. But the reaction to the pill still confounded her.
"Enough already with the Viagra references," Whitehead said. "The barometer of success should never be measured against an on-demand drug for men. Women are not on-demand creatures when it comes to sex."
Her company, Sprout Pharmaceuticals, made headlines in August when a drug it created became the first FDA approved drug to boost a woman's sex drive. However, most of those headlines wrongly referred to it as 'female viagra'.
The drug, flibanserin or "Addyi", treats a condition called hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), which can cause chronic low desires to have sex in women. Addyi is a non-hormonal treatment that sends chemicals to the brain in the hopes of increasing sexual desire for women.
The drug is nothing like Viagra.
"Addyi is an every day drug that works on chemical issue," Whitehead said. "That's very different than a drug that works for blood flow."
However, Whitehead might have bigger issues than the public's wrong nickname for the drug. According to a report from Bloomberg, only 227 prescriptions for the drug had been written by November, three months after it had been on the market.
Onstage at Fortune, Whitehead said she's happy with the progress because doctors and pharmacies both have to go through additional certification to be able to prescribe the drug. According to her numbers, around 10,000 doctors and 30,000 pharmacies had completed the certification. Plus, the diagnosis relies on having a medical condition - not just an ebb and flow in desire (or excuses) to not have sex.
"Our goal out of the gate is education," Whitehead said.