According to the results of two studies set to be presented Tuesday at the American Urological Association's annual meeting in San Francisco, an experimental spray improved sex for some men who regularly experience premature ejaculation,
Men who applied the aerosol spray, a mixture of the anesthetics lidocaine and prilocaine, reached orgasm a mean of 3 minutes 18 seconds after beginning sex, compared with about 56 seconds for those who got a placebo spray. The 539 men completing the two studies, who were randomly assigned to the real drug or the fake version, had an average time of less than 36 seconds before they took part in the research. That meant the drug was linked to a 5.5-fold increase in time before ejaculation, compared to a 1.6-fold gain for the placebo.
The spray, currently referred to as PSD502, hasn't won regulatory approval to be marketed. The company that owns rights to the product, Japan's Shionogi & Co. Ltd., says it hopes to apply to the Food and Drug Administration and is already in discussions with the agency.
