ALREADY ONE of Canada’s richest businessmen, Barbados resident Eugene Melnyk has found yet another way to add to his vast fortune: helping women overcome their inability to achieve an orgasm.
Melnyk, who has lived in Barbados for many years and is a fixture in horse racing circles here, is the co-founder and the majority shareholder of Trimel Pharmaceuticals Corp., TRL, which has announced success in mid-stage study of its female sexual disorder drug Tefina.
The immediate reaction to the news was a surge in the price of Trimel shares. It reached a high of CAN$3 a share on the Toronto Stock Exchange, increasing the value of Melnyk’s holdings.
Unlike Viagra for men, which comes in pill form, Tefina is a gel formulation of testosterone, the male hormone, and is administered through a nasal applicator.
Trimel Pharmaceutical stated that the study measured the occurrence of, time to reach, and the quality of a woman’s orgasm. The research showed, added the company, that Tefina was significantly better than a placebo or dummy drug in stirring a women’s sexual desire and orgasm.
The next step would be a study the thorny issue of a woman’s inability to achieve a climax during sexual intercourse, a condition that adversely affects one in five pre-and-post menopausal women around the world.
As Trimel Pharmaceutical explained it, the results from the vibrotactile stimulation study demonstrated that Tefina had successfully met all of expectations.
“The positive conclusion of the Phase 1V VTS study, along with its predecessor programme, denotes groundbreaking support for our decision to pursue a ‘use as required’ product for women expecting anorgasmia,” said Bruce D. Brydon, chairman and chief executive officer of Trimel.
“These pioneering insights in female sexual health, where today no ‘use as required’ product has been approved, give greater importance to our corroborative effort with the United States Food and Drug Administration diagnostic criteria and assistive measurements for our implementation of Phase 11 AMB study.”
Trimel Pharmaceutical Corporation is based in Mississauga, Ontario, and it spent CAN$6 million on research and development of Tefina between July and September last year.
It is also developing for Parkinson’s and respiratory diseases.
Analysts say Melnyk and Trimel stand a good chance of beating other pharmaceutical companies in the race to develop a drug for female sexual dysfunction. One such company is BioSante Pharmaceutical Inc.
Melnyk, whose family roots are in the Ukraine, is the owner of the Ottawa Senators team in the National Hockey League, has the Melnyk Racing Stables Inc. and the 1 000-acre Winding Oak Farm in Ocala in Florida.
His racehorses are named after famous Barbados landmarks and they carry the blue and gold national colours of Barbados.
In a recent listing of Canada’s richest people, prepared by Canada Business publication, Melnyk’s fortune was estimated at almost CAN$1 billion.
