Source: Observer
Date: 29 September 2002

Nasal spray for women who are sniffy about sex
Robin McKie, science editor

It is the seducer's ultimate dream: a potion that will turn a woman's
cold indifference into warm sexual interest. Sound improbable? Not any
more. Scientists last week revealed they had successfully tested a nasal
spray, PT-141, that sent 'healthy, normal women' into states of high
sexual arousal.

'The crucial point about PT-141 is that it directly targets the brain's
arousal centre,' said Dr Carl Spana, president of Palatin Technologies,
of New Jersey. Originally uncovered through tests on rats, the drug
aroused female rodents 'so quickly they started mounting males', added
Spana.

Now the company hopes to market PT-141 for humans in two or three years
though Spana stressed Palatin's main target was people with sexual
problems: men with impotence and women with low arousal.

Given that more than 40 per cent of women suffer from 'female sexual
dysfunction' - they are interested in sex but cannot reach climax - this
still gives PT-141 a massive market while at the same time providing
hope for a lot of unsatisfied men.

The drug could even prove to be more popular than Viagra which works by
directly stimulating blood flow in sexual organs. But for many women, it
is lack of libido - not physiological difficulties - that causes them
problems. By contrast, PT-141 targets the brain's arousal centre and
looks more likely to defrost sexual interest, says Palatin.

This point was underlined last week when Professor Raymond Rosen of New
Jersey's University of Medicine and Dentistry revealed results of the
first human trials of PT-141. Sixteen healthy women were given the drug
and 16 were given a placebo. All were shown erotic videos, while
detectors measured blood flow in their vaginas.

The women given placebos hardly reacted while those on PT-141 had
pronounced increases in blood flow - results that demonstrate the drug
has potential that goes well beyond its use only as a medical aid,
though Spana counselled caution. 'The drug can only be administered as a
nasal spray - which isn't good for seducers. You can't put it in a drink
and sticking it up a girl's nose is hard to do surreptitiously, after
all.

'On the other hand, related compounds could easily be made into pills
one day, though I still don't think they will turn on a woman who was
previously totally uninterested in a man or in having sex. She has to be
halfway there already.'