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A drug that was undergoing trials as an anti-depressant has been discovered to possess properties which appear to enhance women’s sexual desire. Flibanserin was being tested on a number of women who reported that their depression was no better but they had a much improved sexual appetite.

As many as one in five women suffer low levels of sexual desire and the aim of the drug is to normalise these levels. Flibanserin stimulates part of the brain associated with emotions and pleasure, including a circuit that appears to control desire and sexual arousal. No excessive sexual effects have been reported in the clinical trial.

Unlike Viagra however, Flibanserin cannot be taken as a one off treatment to improve sexual performance; it takes several weeks for the drug to build up sufficient quantities in the brain to have any effect so it would have to be taken as a daily pill.

The drug, which is owned by the German pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim, is now being tested on 5,000 women in 220 locations to examine its effects on female sexual dysfunction. The company hopes to achieve approval for Flibanserin by the Food and Drug Agency in the US by 2009.