--- title: Female Viagra pill for low sex drive gets FDA advisory backing description: FDA advisory group gives its go ahead to the drug for women with low sex drives canonical: https://time.com/3910147/female-viagra-closer-reality/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-04T21:54:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:56:21.311Z article:section: Health og:title: Female Viagra pill for low sex drive gets FDA advisory backing og:description: FDA advisory group gives its go ahead to the drug for women with low sex drives og:url: https://time.com/3910147/female-viagra-closer-reality/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt869816c570788ac0/6988526bf887dcc4a6e90b5e/flibanserin.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A tablet of flibanserin sits on a brochure for Sprout Pharmaceuticals in the company's Raleigh, N.C., headquarters. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Female Viagra pill for low sex drive gets FDA advisory backing twitter:description: FDA advisory group gives its go ahead to the drug for women with low sex drives twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt869816c570788ac0/6988526bf887dcc4a6e90b5e/flibanserin.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Female Viagra is One Step Closer to Reality by [Laura Lorenzetti/Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Laura Lorenzetti/Fortune Jun 4, 2015 9:54 PM UTC  A tablet of flibanserin sits on a brochure for Sprout Pharmaceuticals in the company's Raleigh, N.C., headquarters. A tablet of flibanserin sits on a brochure for Sprout Pharmaceuticals in the company's Raleigh, N.C., headquarters.Allen Breed—AP by [Laura Lorenzetti/Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Laura Lorenzetti/Fortune Jun 4, 2015 9:54 PM UTC A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel gave its stamp of approval to a first-of-its-kind drug to treat lagging sexual desire in women–albeit with some warnings. The advisory committee [voted 18 to 6](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/business/panel-backs-a-drug-to-increase-womens-sex-drive.html?%5Fr=0) to approve the drug, flibanserin, as long as steps are taken to minimize the risk of side effects. The little pink pill–a fitting companion to Viagra’s memorable blue hue– would be taken every evening and would be approved for use in premenopausal women with what’s known as hypoactive sexual desire disorder. It’s a condition said to affect 7% of premenopausal women that results in an unusually low sex drive that’s not being caused by any disease or other condition, according to Sprout Pharmaceuticals, which owns the drug. It’s unclear exactly how big the market would be for the drug. But, if Viagra is any benchmark, it could be a cash cow. Viagra brought in annual sales of [more than $2 billion](http://www.pfizer.com/files/annualreport/2012/financial/financial2012.pdf) for Pfizer at the drug’s height. MORE: [Read about Pfizer on the new Fortune 500.](http://fortune.com/fortune500) The FDA has already rejected flibanserin twice to date, arguing that its side effects don’t outweigh the risks. Some women’s groups claimed gender bias give that the governmental agency has approved drugs like Viagra for men but left half the population without an option. However, the FDA countered in its previous reviews that the benefits were “numerically small but statistically significant” and not enough to counter the resulting low blood pressure, fainting, sleepiness, nausea and dizziness. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3910147/female-viagra-closer-reality/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3910147/female-viagra-closer-reality/"},"headline":"A Female Viagra is One Step Closer to Reality","datePublished":"2015-06-04T21:54:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:56:21.311Z","description":"FDA advisory group gives its go ahead to the drug for women with low sex drives","url":"https://time.com/3910147/female-viagra-closer-reality/","keywords":["Viagra","women","medicine","Pharmaceuticals","Pfizer","pubdesk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt869816c570788ac0/6988526bf887dcc4a6e90b5e/flibanserin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Lorenzetti/Fortune"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt869816c570788ac0/6988526bf887dcc4a6e90b5e/flibanserin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A tablet of flibanserin sits on a brochure for Sprout Pharmaceuticals in the company's Raleigh, N.C., headquarters.","caption":"A tablet of flibanserin sits on a brochure for Sprout Pharmaceuticals in the company's Raleigh, N.C., headquarters.","creditText":"Allen Breed—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/viagra/","name":"Viagra"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3910147/female-viagra-closer-reality/","name":"A Female Viagra is One Step Closer to Reality"}}]}] ```