Tesco’s plan to follow high street rival Boots and start selling Viagra next week without a doctor’s prescription could be a bad idea, according to pensions experts. Yes, that’s right; pensions experts.
You might wonder what they would know about it and why they should care. The answer rests on the law of unintended consequences – just as the original discovery of the best-selling drug, Viagra, did.
Never mind, for now, the ticklish subject of erectile dysfunction. Actuaries, the mathematicians who advise pension funds, are more interested in longevity. Life expectancy is rising by about two years with every passing decade and women tend to live longer than men but – here’s the interesting bit – the gap is closing.
According to the Office for National Statistics, women’s life expectancy at birth was six years longer than men’s a quarter of a century ago – but it is only 4.2 years longer today. That’s a substantial reduction in a relatively short period of time and there are various theories to explain the trend. Some point to greater equality in the workplace with all the stress that entails; others say it is due to more women smoking and drinking.
But Nick Flint, chief executive of pensions consultants Club Vita, reckons another important factor is that men are taking more active interest in their health than their fathers did. He explained: “Men are indeed catching up with women, partly because they are more willing to go to the doctor than was the case in the past and more diseases that could have proved terminal are being diagnosed earlier.
“The advent of Viagra has been important. Whereas many men in their fifties and sixties were very reluctant to take medical advice a decade or more ago, the drug has encouraged men to go and see their doctor. As a result, other problems are being identified at an early stage and this is having a beneficial effect on male life expectancy.”
More than 30m men have been prescribed Viagra since its discovery in 1998. Whether its beneficial impact on life expectancy will continue when it can be obtained without the need to see a doctor is open to question. But Tesco, which will sell the drug at 300 of its stores next Monday, stressed that a pharmacist will make each sale and customers will be vetted. They will have to complete a questionnaire and have their blood pressure and cholesterol measured, as well as undergo a test for diabetes.
So Viagra may continue to have an unexpected effect on life expectancy – just as the discovery of the drug itself was unintended. Pfizer, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, had originally been testing a compound called UK92480 as a treatment for heart problems. Initial results were disappointing and Pfizer considered abandoning further trials until it noticed that many men were reluctant to return unused little blue pills. Further questioning revealed unexpected side effects and the rest, as they say, is hysteria.
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If Viagra encouraged men in their 50s and 60s to go to the doctor and that had positive consequences on their life expectency (What? Cardiac arrests from increased sexual activity does not self-correct the issue? That Viagra stuff is too weak! Double the doses...), then selling it over-the-counter should actually be 'good' for health insurance companies - No more doctor visit with all kind of check-ups. Just the blue pill, no or few questions asked.
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You might not think so, but I realise that my entire contribution to this site can be broken down thusly:
However, I'd just like to say that I was genuinely posting this for the odd Freakonomicsesque quality to it, not because of *teeheehee erections!*
That's all. *goes back to cuteoverload*
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Though, incidentally, surely the pensions industry would be all in favour of chaps bonking themselves into an early grave without medical advice? It's the insurance actuaries who'd be worried...
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Why supermarket Viagra might be a bad idea
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