Drug firms accused of 'inventing' disease

Drug companies will be accused today of sponsoringthe creation of a new disease ­ female sexual dysfunction ­ to profit from the supply of drugs to treat it.

A series of international meetings, supported by the pharmaceutical industry, held over the past five years has promoted the disorder as a mechanical dysfunction similar to erectile problems in men, despite criticism that this ignores social and personal issues and is unhelpful to women.

A study in Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama) published in 1999 suggested that 43 per cent of women over the age of 18 had female sexual dysfunction.

The finding was based on a survey of 1,500 women who were asked if they had experienced any of seven symptoms in the previous year, including lack of desire or anxiety about performance.

Although the high number reporting problems was described by leading specialists as misleading and potentially dangerous, the figure has been widely quoted since. The Jama researchers were careful to point out that its finding was "not equivalent to clinical diagnosis", but this caveat is now regularly overlooked.

An investigation by the British Medical Journal, published today, says that researchers with close ties to drug companies have defined and classified the new disorder at company-sponsored meetings. The most recent conference, held in New York, was sponsored by Pfizer, which makes Viagra, the male anti-impotence drug that had sales of $1.5bn (£1bn) in 2001.

Other companies, including Bayer and Lilly, are due to launch rivals to Viagra this year and are planning to build markets relying heavily on the figure of 43 per cent.

The BMJ concludes there could be benefits to women from increased attention to female sexual problems, but adds: "The potential risk, in a process so heavily sponsored by drug companies, is that the complex social, personal and physical causes of sexual difficulties will be swept away in the rush to diagnose, label and prescribe."