Pills That Lead Double Lives

We usually view side effects as a bad thing, but sometimes they point the way to a whole new use for a drug.

"We think of...drugs as being specific to [a] task," says Harvard University medical historian Dr. Jeremy Greene. In fact, he says, "drugs are very complex objects."

As research and development costs have climbed, drug companies are more interested than ever in finding ways to repurpose their products. Often they seek to simply market an existing drug for a new condition, but in some cases they give the drug a whole new name and face. Here are eight drugs that lead double lives.

Prozac and Sarafem When Eli Lilly's patent on Prozac (fluoxetine) expired in 2001, the company saw sales of the blockbuster drug plummet as the market opened up to competition from cheaper generic versions. In what some experts saw as a move to stem losses, Lilly began marketing fluoxetine for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a severe form of PMS.

With the new use came a new brand: Sarafem. Pink-and-purple capsules in sunflower-bedecked packaging replaced the gender-neutral green and white of Prozac. A Lilly rep said the makeover helped give women "a treatment with its own identity," but some women were reportedly "shocked and angry" when they discovered they were effectively taking Prozac. _________________________________________________

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Viagra and Revatio While studying a drug for heart-related chest pain in the 1990s, Pfizer researchers discovered that men who took it experienced a surprising side effect: erections. The drug proved ineffective for chest pain, but Viagra was born.

Pfizer later explored other uses for the drug, which relaxes blood vessels, and in 2005 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it for pulmonary hypertension, under the brand name Revatio.

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Pills That Lead Double Lives