What's in a Name, Viagra

The official name is Sildenafil Citrate. Pharmaceutical chemists at Pfizer's research facility in Kent, England originally conceived it as a treatment for hypertension, angina, and other symptoms of heart disease. Clinical trials during 1991 and 1992 revealed the drug was not great at treating what it was supposed to treat, but eighty percent of male test subjects were experiencing a side effect of erections.

It was finally approved by the US FDA in 1998 and the drug took US markets by storm as a treatment for penile dysfunction and became an overnight success. It and female Viagra now raise over two billion dollars a year.