Viagra has competition?

A yet-to-be-approved impotence drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co and Icos Corp. appears to be longer-lasting than Viagra, the companies sai...

A yet-to-be-approved impotence drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co and Icos Corp. appears to be longer-lasting than Viagra, the companies said, citing a study. Patients in the study reported success in achieving erections from 24 hours to as long as 36 hours after taking a 20 milligram pill of cialis, said the two firms.

The study did not compare cialis’s effects directly with those of Viagra, the $1.2 billion-a-year drug for erectile dysfunction Pfizer Inc. introduced in 1998. ‘‘There are other studies that have looked at the length of the duration of Viagra’s effects, and usually it’s in the eight-to-12 hour range maximum,’’ Dr Raymond Rosen, the author of the cialis study, said.

Results of the peer-reviewed, final-phase study have been released today at the American Urological Association. The study, funded by Lilly and Icos, involved 348 men with mild to severe erectile dysfunction who were given either a placebo or cialis over eight weeks. About 59 percent of the patients reported positive effects in their ability to have sex after 36 hours. More reasons to chew on broccoli

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Broccoli is not only loaded with vitamins and minerals— it may carry a substance that kills bacteria that cause stomach cancer, researchers said.

A compound that helps give broccoli its distinctive taste, which some love and others hate, also kills the helicobacter pylori bacteria, blamed for most cases of stomach cancer, French and US researchers found. A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the French National Scientific Research Center. said the antibiotics can kill helicobacter and prevent stomach cancer, but they are expensive and have side-effects, which include killing off ‘‘good’’ bacteria that help the body digest food. (Reuters)

Fragile future for Asian elephants

The outlook for the Asian elephant in the wild is dangerous with poaching and human conflict the biggest killers but the jumbo is expected to survive in most countries, with 50-60 per cent in India. Raman Sukumar, from the Centre for Ecological Sciences in India, said at a conference in Cambodia that there were between 35,000-45,000 Asian elephants left in the wild with 50 to 60 % in India. Poaching for ivory and meat and conflict with humans were the biggest dangers. But Indian conservationists can breathe a bit easy: Vietnam is said to be the “ worst case scenario” where the elephants are “biologically doomed” because there are so few of them left there.”