IT WAS bound to be toppled sooner or later. Viagra is set to be replaced as the leading erection pill by a new drug that enables impotent men to have sex as required for 36 hours.

Cialis, dubbed the “weekend pill” because the effects last for a minimum of 24 hours, was launched in February. A study shows that 45 per cent of patients are choosing it over Viagra and the latest competitor in a rapidly growing market, Levitra.

Cialis allows couples to recapture a spontaneity in their love lives. With Viagra, patients have to have sex before the effects wear off — usually within four to five hours — which can make women feel pressurised to have sex the minute their partner pops a pill. A German study revealed at the European Society for Sexual Medicine found only 13 per cent of patients continued to take Viagra after trying Cialis.

It is not all bad news for Viagra, though. Doctors have found an intriguing new use for the drug. For the past year, American paediatricians have been using it to treat infants with breathing problems.

Dr Jerrill Green, a critical care specialist at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, says it is a success with premature babies with lung disease or cardiac problems and who suffer from life-threatening pulmonary hypertension. “It opens up the arteries in the children’s lungs,” he explains.

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