July 3 (Xinhua) -- Amid great expectations, the anti- impotence drug Viagra was launched in the world's most populous country on Monday, with approval from the state drug regulator.

China's State Drug Administration (SDA) has approved the production and sale of Viagra for erectile dysfunction (ED) in the country, announced U.S. drug giant Pfizer, which makes the best- selling drug.

"Today is an important day in the history of Pfizer," Koenraad Bostoen, chairman and general manager of Pfizer China, told a press conference simultaneously held in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Viagra will be available at general hospitals at county level or above, but only with a doctor's prescription.

China is the 101st country to give the green light to the diamond-shaped blue pill, even though Pfizer applied to the Chinese authorities for approval to begin clinical research on the pill in 1996, more than one year earlier than its debut in the U.S. market.

Viagra will be marketed under the Chinese name "wan ai ke," though the pill has long been known throughout the country as " weige" -- a Chinese phrase literally meaning "Great Brother."

The Pharmaceuticals Ltd. plant in northeast China's port city of Dalian is responsible for manufacturing the drug with imported materials. The first group of products have been distributed to hospitals across the country.

Pfizer officers declined, however, to give specific sales and production projections. A 25-mg tablet will cost 71 yuan (about 8.5 U.S. dollars) and a 50-mg tablet 99 yuan. The average monthly income of an urban employee in 1998 was 450 yuan.

The drug will not be covered by health insurance, which is experiencing a transition from the government-paid one to a pooling system.

About ten percent of Chinese men are estimated to suffer from impotence, a condition often associated with age, hypertension, diabetes and unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, according to urologist Zhu Jichuan of the People's Hospital here.

"Most ED patients are reluctant to seek medical advice, thus tending to suffer alone and in silence," said Zhu, who attended the clinical research project for Viagra in China. "So Viagra is really good news for those patients."

However, Pfizer again stressed that it is unnecessary for non- ED patients to use Viagra, because it is not an aphrodisiac. "And, most importantly, Viagra should not be used in conjunction with nitrates of any kind," warned Koenraad Bostoen.

China has a long history of using herbal medicines and some animal parts to treat erectile problems while increasing sexual potency. But Viagra is the first oral medication that has been proved by large-scale clinical tests to be safe and effective for the treatment of ED, Professor Zhu said.

He and some other Chinese doctors in Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan conducted a five-month clinical trial among about 630 ED patients.

With an overall efficacy rate reaching 81 percent, the result of the Chinese study was similar to those conducted in Western countries and other Asian countries, in which Viagra proved effective for the treatment of ED caused by organic, psychological and mixed conditions, he said.

Around the world, more than eight million ED patients had taken Viagra for treatment by the end of April, 2000, it was learned.

(From China Internet Information Center)