Stockholm - A Swedish court Friday overturned an earlier ruling that said the state should pay subsidies for medications like Viagra used to treat erectile dysfunction. The Supreme Administrative Court cited the difficulties in ensuring that a correct diagnosis was made of severe cases that would have been covered by the subsidy.
The uneven distribution and shortage of specialist physicians in some parts of the country also made it difficult to ensure equal treatment of all patients, the court said.
Two of the five judges dissented, media reports said. The new ruling overturned a previous lower court decision that said men suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure, two common causes to the problem, should be eligible for a subsidy.
Pfizer Sweden's medical director Johan Brun said the group was "surprised" that subsidies were not awarded for a treatment that was "medically effective" and cheap.
The legal arguments have been tested since 2001 when the then government decided that Viagra and other products against male impotency were no longer to be covered by the pharmaceutical benefit system.
The state Pharmaceutical Benefits Board had also argued against the subsidies for the products Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.
Director General Ann-Christin Tauberman on Friday said the agency tried to ensure "maximum value for each tax krona" and that there were likely other groups of patients with "more serious diseases" like cancer.
