Viagras Team of Inventors and History

According to the British Press, Peter Dunn and Albert Wood  are named as the inventors of the process by which Viagra was created. Their names appeared on an application by Pfizer to patent (WOWO9849166A1) the manufacturing process of  Sildenafil Citrate, better known as Viagra. Peter Dunn and Albert Wood are both employees of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals at the Pfizer run research laboratories in Kent and thus are not allowed to discuss their status or non-status as inventors. In a statement,  Albert Wood said: I cant say anything, youll have to talk to the press office... On the invention of Viagra, a  Pfizer Pharmaceuticals spokesperson said: Life might seem cruel, but they are paid to work for the company and the company owns their inventions. Literally, hundreds of people at Pfizer have been involved in developing the drug. You cant really point to two individuals and say they spawned Viagra. More of a Team Effort   Anyhow, to the best of our knowledge, this is how the story goes. In 1991, inventors Andrew Bell, Dr. David Brown and Dr. Nicholas Terrett discovered that chemical compounds belonging to the pyrazolopyrimidine class were useful in treating heart problems such as angina. Some experts consider Terrett as the father of Viagra as he was named in the 1991 British patent for Sildenafil (trade name Viagra) as a possible heart medicine. It was in 1994, though, that Terrett and his colleague Peter Ellis discovered during the trial studies of Sildenafil as a potential heart medication that it also increased blood flow to the penis, allowing men to reverse erectile dysfunctions. The drug acts by enhancing the smooth muscle relaxant effects of nitric oxide, a chemical that is normally released in response to sexual stimulation. The smooth muscle relaxation allows increased blood flow into the penis, leading to an erection when combined with something arousing. While Terrett is not allowed to discuss whether he considers himself the real inventor of Viagra as he is still a Pfizer employee, he did once state: There were three  patents  put forward for Viagra. Basically, me and my team discovered how useful the drug might be... they (Wood and Dunn) created a way of mass producing it only.   Pfizer claims that hundreds of inventors were involved with the creation of Viagra and that there was not enough room on the patent application to name them all. Thus, only the department heads were listed. Dr. Simon Campbell, who until recently was the Senior Vice President Of Medicinal Discovery at Pfizer and oversaw Viagras development, is considered by the American press to be the inventor of Viagra. However, Campbell would rather be remembered as the father of Amlodipine, a cardiovascular drug.   Steps In Making Viagra Dunn and Wood worked on the crucial nine-step process to synthesize a Sildenafil (Viagra) compound into a pill. It was approved by the FDA on March 27, 1998, as the first pill to treat impotence. Here is a quick summary of the steps: Methylation of 3-propyl pyrazole-5-carboxylic acid ethyl ester with hot dimethyl sulfateHydrolysis with aqueous NaOH to free acidNitration with oleum/fuming nitric acidCarboxamide formation with refluxing thionyl chloride/NH4OHReduction of nitro group to aminoAcylation with 2-methoxybenzoyl chlorideCyclizationSulfonation to the chlorosulfonyl derivativeCondensation with 1-methylpiperazine Empirical formula C22H30N6O4Smolecular weight 474.5solubility 3.5 mg/mL in water Viagra and  Lawsuits One billion dollars in sales were made in Viagras first year of production. But soon many lawsuits against Viagra and Pfizer were filed. This included a suit filed for $110 million dollars on behalf of Joseph Moran, a car dealer from New Jersey. He claimed that he crashed his car into two parked cars after Viagra caused him to see blue lightning coming from his fingertips, at which point he blacked out. Joseph Moran was driving his Ford Thunderbird home after a date at the time.