Indo Asian News Service announced on Friday, March 23 that the government of the central Argentine province of Santa Fe will manufacture the drug sildenafil, better known under the brandname Viagra, for further free distribution to males with erectile dysfunction. It was reported that the drug will be manufactured in the state-run Pharmaceutical Industrial Laboratory and distributed under strict medical prescription in public hospitals, according to provincial Health Minister Miguel Cappiello.

He said that the laboratory is working to produce pills for adults suffering from erectile dysfunction and on a syrup to treat children suffering from pulmonary hypertension. They're moving forward on the trials to produce sildenafil, which will be distributed free among those who need it, to deal with different conditions within the framework of the public policies on the production of medications, he said. Cappiello went on to say that the decision to produce sildenafil arose in the face of the need to have a medicinal (approach) to treat pediatric pulmonary hypertension. Simultaneously, they're developing the formula for sildenafil, 50 mg in pill form, usually prescribed for erectile dysfunction, he added.

On top of that, the minister insisted that the distribution of Viagra will be free and under obligatory medical prescription and that other provinces in the country are interested in buying the drug from Santa Fe to foster similar policies.