The Church of England has received a major financial boost from the success of the anti-impotence drug Viagra. The value of the church commissioners' shareholding in the drug's US manufacturer, Pfizer Inc, had almost doubled since the end of 1997 when it was worth £1 million sterling, according to press reports.
"The job of the church commissioners is to invest wisely and we certainly have had a good return on that investment," a spokesman for the commissioners was quoted as saying.
"The church has no problem with making money out of a drug that restores a normal healthy function to people who have lost it."
The small blue pills have proved wildly popular since being first released in April.
Shares in Pfizer have risen from $70 (IR£50) at the beginning of the year to trade at $103 on Tuesday, mostly driven by Viagra's success.
They are prescribed for men with erectile disfunction.
The spokesman said the Pfizer stake was part of a church share portfolio worth some £2.2 billion sterling.
The EU's medicines agency confirmed earlier this week that its scientific advisory panel had recommended Viagra be marketed in Europe.
The London-based European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products said the European Commission would make a final decision after consulting the 15 EU countries - a process that normally takes three months.
Pfizer announced last week that the panel, the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products, had adopted a "positive opinion" on Viagra.
Viagra won approval from US regulators two months ago and quickly became one of the biggest-selling drugs in history.
Six deaths have been reported in the US. However, Pfizer said they were attributed either to cardiovascular events associated with sexual activity in older men or a combination of Viagra and nitrates.
The EU medicines agency said in a statement that it was responding to applications to market Viagra from Pfizer Limited UK and Roerig Farmaceutici SpA, both Pfizer subsidiaries.
It said it had considered the latest safety data available from patients in the US.
However, it said that until the EU gave the final go-ahead, it wanted the companies to provide frequent updates, "including comprehensive reports of adverse reactions".
The agency said Viagra's active substance, sildenafil citrate, should not be prescribed to patients who were taking nitrates, have recently had a stroke or heart attack or suffer from low blood pressure, severe heart or liver problems or certain inherited eye diseases.
It added that Viagra should not be used by women.