According to an Ifop poll published in May 2019, 21% of men regularly experience erection problems. However, few are those who dare to approach the problem with their doctor, preferring to try to remedy it by watching pornographic videos (43% of men who have already encountered erection problems, according to the same survey) or by buying on the Internet supposed aphrodisiac products.
However, now in this vast market of erectile disorders, the Dutch laboratory Vemedia has been marketing, since the spring, an erectile gel Eroxon StimGel. Available without a prescription in Belgian pharmacies and in a few clicks on the Internet, it is applied directly to the penis. “During the clinical study, 60% of erections occurred within 10 minutes of applying the gel and the majority resulted in successful intercourse,” reads the press release published by Vemedia at the time of the launch of Eroxon Stimgel.
“We tested glyceryl trinitate gel against a placebo. The latter was ultimately found to be as effective and without clinical effect, hence its marketing without a prescription under the name Eroxon Stimgel,” he replied. In other words, the laboratory has therefore decided to sell the placebo – based on water and glycerin – used in its trial instead of the product tested!
But for Ronald Virag, the “father” of the very famous Viagra, andrologist at the Center for Exploration and Treatment of Impotence, in Paris, “this is really not serious: we know very well that any placebo works in 30% of patients with erectile dysfunction. And then, he adds, “the positive effect of the placebo in this clinical trial is all the less surprising since the most affected patients were excluded, in particular those for whom the erectile disorders were explained by another pathology”.
The andrologist also indicates that he has had no positive feedback on this product either from his patients or from his colleagues practicing in Belgium where Eroxon Stimgel is more easily accessible. For its part, the laboratory – which we contacted but which did not respond to our requests – advances in its press release “a rapid and targeted cooling effect followed by a gradual heating which stimulates the nerve endings, releases nitric oxide which increases blood flow”. A mechanical effect, and not a pharmacological one, which allows him above all to sell his product as a medical device and thus to free himself from the many brakes governing the marketing of a drug.
