Firstmed Blog

NEW YORK — An AIDS organization is launching an advertising campaign that says Pfizer Inc.’s marketing of Viagra encourages recreational use of the drug, which fosters the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation will begin its campaign this Wednesday by taking out a full-page ad in the Village Voice, an alternative weekly in New York. The ad will also appear this week in LA Weekly and The New York Blade, a weekly newspaper for the gay and lesbian community.

Ads will also eventually be placed in publications in South Florida and San Francisco, according to the Foundation which provides health care to AIDS patients as well as education and prevention advice about the disease.

The ads show a picture of a prescription pad which contains the message that Viagra combined with crystal methamphetamine creates a prescription for HIV infection. It says that crystal methamphetamine makes it difficult to get and keep an erection, but Viagra makes it possible to maintain an erection while on the illegal drug.

Lori Yeghiayan, a spokeswoman for the Foundation, said that Pfizer’s marketing treats Viagra as a tool to improve one’s sex life instead of a drug for a medical condition.

In a statement, Pfizer said that it has always been committed to safe and appropriate use of Viagra and that the product’s label clearly states that it does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

Source: Chron