Vivus Shares Surge on News of Patent OK

Shares of Vivus Inc., a maker of products for relieving sexual dysfunction, more than doubled Monday amid expectations that the company could revive its flagging fortunes with a new product targeted at women.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Vivus, whose stock sank after the 1998 launch of Pfizer’s impotence drug, Viagra, rose $2.63, or 120%, to close at $4.81 on Nasdaq after the company announced it had been granted a patent covering the treatment of female sexual dysfunction.

The patent covers the commercialization of topical creams and gels that may be used to administer drugs and steroid hormones for treatment of the condition.

The company’s biggest product to date, Muse, is a pellet containing the compound alprosdil. The anti-impotence product was well received after its introduction, with as many as 15,000 prescriptions written a month.

That changed last March, when Pfizer launched Viagra, the first anti-impotence pill.