Two days after FDA staff expressed concern about flibanserin, a drug under consideration for the treatment of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder in women, an advisory committee unanimously voted that the drug’s benefits did not outweigh its side effects.

The FDA has yet to make an official ruling on the drug, but the agency normally follows the advice of its external advisory committees. Given that FDA staff also had reservations about the drug, it seems unlikely that ladies will be popping a ‘pink pill’ anytime soon.

Meanwhile, over at Pharmalot, Ed Silverman points out that a documentary on female sexuality has been airing on the Discovery Channel website this month. (Here’s part one of the four part series.) It’s sponsor: Boehringer Ingelheim, the German pharmaceutical company that makes flibanserin. Boehringer has also tried to ‘raise awareness’ of the controversial Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder via Twitter.

Meanwhile, apologies to Jan Shifren, director of the Vincent Menopause Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, who told the Boston Globe to stop calling it ‘pink Viagra’. Shifren protests that a drug to boost female sexual desire will bear no resemblance to Viagra. (Viagra merely fixes ‘a plumbing problem’, she says, but to achieve similar effects in women, a drug would probably have to act on the brain.) Agreed, but ‘pink Viagra’ just rolls off the tongue so much more easily than filba… filiba… flibasero… well, you get the idea.