Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is looking for additional uses for its popular drug Viagra in order to keep up sales when its patent expires in a few years. One possible use for Viagra is being studied at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. The study is to determine whether patients who have suffered moderate strokes will recover more rapidly if given Viagra within 7 days of stroke symptoms. Can the brain on Viagra form new blood vessels and nerve connections better than without Viagra?

In another clinical trial, Viagra, repackaged in white (not blue) 20 milligram pills and renamed Revatio, is used to treat pulmonary hypertension, a lung disorder affecting both adults and children. So we should give our kids a form of Viagra with their Flintstones vitamins? Pfizer has come under some criticism for the cost of Revatio compared to that of Viagra. Taken 3 times per day as Revatio, the drug costs $33.50 per day or over $11 per 20 milligram pill. Taken as Viagra in 100 milligram doses, the drug costs just over $11 per pill. Pfizer argues that the 20 milligram pill costs as much as the 100 milligram pill because of the increased costs to gain federal approval for use in an entirely new group of patients.

Viagra is also being studied for possible use in treating high blood pressure in pregnant women and to ease menopause symptoms. This last use has been challenged recently, particularly by a group of women in Utah. According to an article by Brooke Adams in The Salt Lake Tribune, at least 75 women have joined together to form a class action suit against Pfizer. The women claim that taking Pfizer's Provera, synthetic progesterone, to control menopause symptoms caused them to develop breast cancer.