FDA to Address Female Sexual Dysfunction

The federal agency will convene a two-day workshop in October to discuss the development of drugs to treat the issue.

Written byBob Grant
| 2 min read

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WIKIMEDIA, SERGIO FABARA MUNOZFemale sexual dysfunction (FSD) may be inching out of the pharmaceutical industry’s shadows as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a two-day, late-October meeting on the issue. The FDA announced on Monday (August 11) that it will convene a workshop on October 27 and 28. The agency has set aside time to hear from FSD patients, researchers, and clinicians who have experience with FSD.

The move comes after critics, such as the Even the Score coalition have complained that the FDA hasn’t approved a single drug to treat FSD, while the agency has approved six types of drugs, sold under 25 different names and formulations, to treat male sexual dysfunction.

Cindy Whitehead, CEO of Sprout Pharmaceuticals—which is currently seeking FDA approval for an FSD drug—told The Wall Street Journal’s Pharmalot that she welcomed the move by the agency. It’s “positive to see that FDA has recognized FSD as one of their 20 priority areas of unmet need under the Patient Focused Drug Development Program,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Based on their outlined goals, this meeting will bring the patient voice forward regarding the impact of living with the ...

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  • From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.

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