MEDICINE Are Viagra sales giving animals a reprieve?

The drug reduces demand for traditional impotence remedies that use animal parts, two brothers say.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PHILADELPHIA -- At an herbal shop in Philadelphia's Chinatown, owners report sluggish sales of a red, powdered medicine called "Strong Man."
On the docks of Newfoundland, fishermen are finding it harder to peddle the private parts of seals.
And on the plains of western Alaska, the trade in reindeer antlers has plummeted.
A possible reason behind all three, according to researchers: Viagra.
The popular impotence drug may be reducing demand for traditional Chinese impotence remedies, many of which contain ground-up animal parts. So Viagra may be helping to save world wildlife.
The evidence, say researchers Frank and William von Hippel, is that sales of seal penises and reindeer antlers dropped sharply about the same time Viagra came on the market, in 1998.
Those two products were studied because they are legally traded and easy to monitor, but there is some early indication that the Viagra effect also holds true for endangered and threatened species, ranging from sea horses to green turtles.
Environmental groups say they hope it's true; they're skeptical of the benefits to seals, but animal experts say the impact on reindeer is plausible.
Continued studies
Pleased that their flagship product may work wonders both in the bedroom and in the realm of animal conservation, Viagra-maker Pfizer gave the researchers $25,000 for additional study in Hong Kong.
Frank von Hippel, a University of Alaska biologist, and his brother, a psychologist in New Zealand, published their most recent paper on the subject -- "Sex, Drugs and Animal Parts: Will Viagra Save Threatened Species?" -- in the September issue of Environmental Conservation.
Their interest began in 1998, when they were hiking in Alaska and began contemplating whether Viagra might indirectly spare some animals. Later that year, the brothers published the first of their papers in Science, proposing the theory. Other findings are awaiting publication, based on the trip to Hong Kong to interview pharmacists.
Additional factors
Von Hippel is quick to point out that even if his theory is correct, there are other factors causing the declining animal trades besides Viagra.
"It's one part of the answer," von Hippel said.
Annual sales of Alaskan reindeer antlers dropped 72 percent in 1998, the year Viagra went on sale, and remained low for two years, according to the brothers' most recent paper.
The von Hippels wrote that some of the drop could have been caused by other factors, such as the Asian financial crisis.
But many consumers of the velvet from reindeer antlers are Asians living in North America, where there was no economic downturn at the time, the authors wrote. Moreover, Viagra sales were robust in Asia even during the economic crisis, they said.
Merchants' reports
In Philadelphia's Chinatown, several merchants and herbal specialists said medicines containing antlers haven't sold well recently but are skeptical that Viagra is responsible.
"Chinese people, they prefer Chinese medicine," said Yvonne Wu Wang, who works at a clinic in Philadelphia.
At Long Life Chinese Natural Herbs in Philadelphia, store salesmen said interest in antler-based medicine was low but that customers are buying a plant-based Chinese impotence medicine instead, not Viagra.
Don Kratzer, who grew up in Lehighton, Pa., and now raises reindeer and spruce trees in Nenana, Alaska, said the reindeer-antler market has since rebounded somewhat.
He said Viagra might have had some temporary effect on the antler market, but said a growing number of customers are taking reindeer-velvet capsules for other purposes -- such as lowering cholesterol and maintaining a healthy heart. And some manufacturers use it in pet food.
"I take a couple pills every day," said Kratzer, who lives 50 miles south of Fairbanks and has 40,000 trees and 80 reindeer.
As for the seals, the von Hippels said Canadian sealers sold 30,000 to 50,000 seal penises in 1996. In 1998, the year Viagra was launched, the figure dropped to 20,000, according to government data. The price dropped as well, to less than $20 Canadian from a high of $100, they wrote.
Skeptical view
Yet David Lavigne, a zoologist at the International Marine Mammal Association in Canada, was doubtful of any Viagra effect.
Sales data are sketchy because most of the seal organs are sold right on the docks and, therefore, hard to monitor, said Lavigne, the association's executive director.
Moreover, he added, the government likely underestimates the numbers so Canada does not draw undue attention as "the seal penis supplier of the world."
"It would be great if [the Viagra effect] were true," Lavigne said. "There simply are inadequate data."
Hong Kong research
Undeterred by skeptics, the von Hippels went to Hong Kong in January. They interviewed traditional pharmacists about their purchases of a wide range of ingredients pre-1998 and today -- both those purported to cure impotence and those said to have other powers.
(They did not ask about rhino horns and tiger parts, which are used predominantly for other ailments.)
They found that purchases of the ingredients from animal species used to treat impotence showed a "statistically significant but modest decline," Frank von Hippel said. The findings are awaiting publication.
The brothers are planning another trip to Hong Kong next year to survey those who take impotence medicine.
Asked why Western medicines for fever or other illnesses would not have a similar impact on sales of traditional Chinese medicines, von Hippel said Viagra is a special case -- a drug so effective it can overcome any deep-seated cultural distrust.
"Impotence is a unique problem," von Hippel said. "It's a problem that men are dealing with daily, and here's a Western treatment that, for those men that it works for, the effect is immediate."