Sugar Pills a Cheap Female Viagra

German drug manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) has announced that it has halted research and development of the investigational drug flibanserin.  This announcement comes after rejection of the drug, submitted for approval, by the FDA in June of this year.  Apparently BI failed to sufficiently show that the use of the drug increased the libidos of the women in the studies.
A few thoughts come to mind -

1. Female libido, in my mind, is dramatically different from male libido.  Male libido is "stimulated" easily in comparison to female in my experience.  Realistically, a stiff breeze can get a man going...  However, a woman's libido is usually much more directly connected to emotional state and attachment.  Simply increasing bloodflow for a woman just doesn't seem like the answer to me - but for a man, little else is required.  Drugs, in general, just don't seem to be a good fit.  Fix her man, and maybe you have a different outcome.  Or even better, if the man could be on something that increases his ability to emotionally connect, and maybe you've got a blockbuster.
2. Others have tried and failed at this before...  Pfizer, who launched Viagra which opened up the Erective Dysfunction market in 1998 with their blockbuster drug dropped their search for a female version in 2004. 
3. Placebo (also known as "sugar pills") were actually almost as effective as BI's drug in increasing the number of "sexually satisfying events" (SSE) for women in the studies.  Flibanserin-treated women reported 4.5 SSEs per month, compared to 2.7 SSEs per month for those taking nothing.  Interestingly, women taking a placebo reported 3.7 SSEs per month; more than nothing, but less than flibanserin.

The placebo effect is quite powerful, and often almost (if not sometimes more) effective than traditional treatments.  The human mind is a powerful tool, and its direct or indirect impact on the body is still something we do not yet very well understand. 

However, I think there is a practical lesson for all men in the failure of BI's drug.

You can spend many many $$ on alternative methods to...  um... well, "Git R Done."  However, before spending millions on a super, female libido increasing med, why not try a box of chocolates.  Even if it doesn't work, maybe she'll be thankful enough to let you have a piece.  Of chocolate, that is.