A so-called female Viagra may have received FDA approval, but while there is demand for the drug, the patients it may actually help could be limited, Dr. Lisa Dabney said Tuesday.
The drug is called flibanserin, but is known as "Addyi," and was developed by Sprout Pharmaceuticals to treat low female sexual desire. The Food and Drug Administration had already twice rejected it, but in June an FDA panel recommended approving the drug and late on Tuesday it was given the final OK, albeit with a strong warning.
The FDA said the pink pills could only be made available through certified and specially trained health care professionals and pharmacies because of its safety issues; the drug can cause potentially dangerous low blood pressure and fainting, particularly when taken with alcohol.
Dabney, director of urogynecology in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital in New York, told CNBC's "Closing Bell" patients have been asking for a pill like this.
However, "it is really for pre-menopausal women, so women generally under 50. It is a pill that needs to be taken every day," she said. "That's going to limit sort of the population who this is going to be good for."
Addyi works differently than Viagra, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction and has been available since 1998. Addyi works on the brain while Viagra affects blood flow to the genitals.
The FDA advisory panel in June said the benefits of the drug are marginal, but meaningful for some patients. Serious side effects include the risk of fainting at unpredictable times, accidental injury and low blood pressure, especially when combined with alcohol.
"The FDA is probably going to recommend that women don't use alcohol while taking this drug and, again, because it's taken every day it means no alcohol either, so that's going … potentially turn women off of it as well."
—Reuters and CNBC's Linda Sittenfeld contributed to this report.