Doctors await Viagra verdict

GPs say they have been put in an impossible position over Viagra

Drug company Pfizer is to hear if it has been successful in its legal challenge against the Department of Health over its anti-impotence drug Viagra.

The firm is disputing guidelines issued to doctors by the government over the prescription of the drug in September.

The Department of Health told them not to prescribe Viagra until further notice, apart from in exceptional circumstances.

It feared that excessive demand for the drug, which was licensed for use in the European Union last September, could cost the health service more than £1bn a year.

But Pfizer says the advice was ''legally indefensible'', and says Frank Dobson, the Health Secretary, acted outside his powers.

'Restrictive guidelines'

Justice Collins is expected to rule on the issue at the High Court in London on Wednesday.

Mr Dobson's department says the drug was not banned, and that the guidelines issued were only an interim measure while a proper policy was drawn up.

The department has since listed the types of cases where Viagra should be prescribed - the list has been expanded but Pfizer says it is still restrictive.

David Pannick, QC, representing the drug maker, says the advice contradicted doctors' "statutory right and legal duty to prescribe according to their assessment of clinical need".

GPs say they have been placed in an impossible position by the government's Viagra rules.

NHS rationing

On the one hand, they are expected to follow the interim guidelines which say it should not be prescribed other than in "exceptional circumstances".

But they must also work within their terms of service, which means they must prescribe a licensed medicine where it is clinically necessary.

The government has been accused of effectively endorsing rationing with its Viagra policy.

But in December last year, when more guidance on the drug was issued to doctors, public health minister Tessa Jowell categorically denied rationing of drugs in the NHS.