Premature ejaculation – there’s a pill for that!

On April 28, the world’s first premature ejaculation (PE) oral medication, Priligy (dapoxetine hydrochloride) will be available in the United Kingdom.

Priligy is not affordable, think the early days of Viagra – three 30mg pills cost £76 (€87.56) and the drug is only available online with a prescription to men aged 18-64.

One caveat: for the pill to work it has to be taken one to three hours before an interlude to delay climax and should not be combined with alcohol, a known aphrodisiac.

Dapoxetine is an antidepressant similar to Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, however Priligy is the only drug currently available – in Sweden, Finland and the UK – to address PE. Other countries may soon be able to dispense Priligy, according to a Priligy resource site, “dapoxetine will be marketed in the US by Ortho McNeil, by Janssen-Ortho Inc. in Canada, and is currently being marketed in Europe by Janssen-Cilag; these are all units of Johnson & Johnson” although when it will be available has not been specified.