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Sex, drugs and animal parts: will Viagra save threatened species?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2002

Frank A. von Hippel
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences and Environment and Natural Resources Institute, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508-8104, USA
William von Hippel
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia

Extract

Many species of plants and animals are used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat impotence (typically erectile dysfunction [ED]; Bensky & Gamble 1993). Some of these taxa are overharvested for their medicinal uses and are now threatened. Efforts to conserve many of these taxa have failed because the market forces driving their commercial collection or poaching remain in place. Shortly after Viagra appeared on the market in 1998, we suggested that Viagra has the potential to eliminate demand for animal sexual potency products (von Hippel & von Hippel 1998). We suggested that the East Asian market in animal potency products could soon fall victim to Viagra's success because Viagra is less expensive than many of these animal products (Viagra costs US$ 8–10 per pill in the countries in which it is legalized) and Viagra's effectiveness is demonstrated (Giuliano et al. 1997; Morales et al. 1998; Sadovsky et al. 2001) rather than hoped for.

Type
Comment
Copyright
© 2002 Foundation for Environmental Conservation

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