Viagra leaves limp demand for illegal
impotence remedies, researchers say

By JOEL GAY

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (December 27, 2002 4:33 p.m. EST) - If a University of Alaska, Anchorage, assistant professor is correct, Viagra is cutting into the market for endangered animals harvested illegally and sold on the black market as cures for impotence.

The drug is already deflating sales of legal animal products, such as Alaska reindeer antler and certain Canadian seals, said Frank von Hippel, who teaches conservation biology. It only stands to reason that other traditional Asian medicines, such as sea cucumbers, geckos and green sea turtles, have also been displaced by Viagra.

"Some people think (Viagra) is unlikely to have an effect" on traditional medicine markets because other Western drugs, such as aspirin, have not reduced demand, von Hippel said. "But we think this is a unique case. Impotence is a different sort of problem than, say, fever."

The connection first dawned on his brother, William von Hippel, a professor of social psychology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He had been teaching in Hong Kong and occasionally visiting apothecaries that sold traditional medicines when Viagra came on the market in early 1998.

They published their hypothesis in Science magazine in 1998 with letters that caught the attention of several newspapers and magazines. For the next three years, they collected data to support their theory, and in September those results were published in the journal Environmental Conservation.

Viagra's effect on many species used in traditional medicines cannot be monitored because the trade in those products, such as the eggs of green sea turtles, is illegal. Many more rare or endangered species, such as rhinoceros and tigers, are used for purposes in addition to or other than erectile dysfunction.

But the sales of three species that can be tracked and that are traditionally used to treat impotence suggest Viagra has eroded their markets, the von Hippels contend. By extension, they wrote, "Such data provide a proxy for the impact of Viagra on illegally traded species."

Sales of the sex organs of Canadian harp seals and hooded seals plummeted after 1998, when Viagra became available. In two years, the cost of a single organ fell from as much as $100 (Canadian) to $15-20, they wrote. Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans attributed part of that market collapse to the new drug.

Western Alaska's reindeer antler industry also took a post-Viagra hit, according to the von Hippels. Though antler sales have always been volatile and were already trending downward in the 1990s, the price of antlers fell far more drastically than the price of reindeer meat from 1997 to 1998.

Young Yoon, owner of the Oriental Shopping Center, sells sliced "deer horn" in clear plastic boxes the size of a thick paperback book for $15.99. Declining demand has forced him to drop his price by nearly half over the last five years, he said.

But Yoon said he suspects the faltering Asian economy is more to blame than Viagra. His best customers are visitors from Korea, Japan and other East Asian countries who stock up on sliced antler for themselves and to give as gifts, Yoon said. Sales have fallen as tourism has slowed, he said.

Greg Finstad, manager of the University of Alaska Fairbanks' reindeer research program, agreed that Viagra has probably influenced the reindeer market, but that Korean import restrictions, transportation and marketing problems were equally to blame in the late 1990s.

"We've actually seen it pick up the last couple of years. The demand is coming back and the price is starting to come back," he said.

Like other world markets, reindeer antler is moving in new directions, particularly in North America, Finstad said.

"Now it seems like it's the trendy thing to take," particularly for aging Baby Boomers, he said. "It helps with arthritis, and aches and pains," and many are feeding antler compounds to their dogs.

And Viagra isn't the biggest worry of Alaska's reindeer herders, Finstad added. The western Arctic caribou herd has moved into reindeer territory, absorbing animals right out of the herders' packs.

"They just wander off the Seward Peninsula never to be seen again," he said.

Frank von Hippel knows that some doubt his Viagra theory, but research continues, he said. Last January, with help from a grant from Viagra's manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., he and his brother surveyed Hong Kong apothecary pharmacists on the prices of various traditional medicines since 1998. The brothers detected a modest decline in the sales of species and products that now compete with the little blue pill.

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