From an inventor of Viagra, a spray to help love last beyond a moment

By Fiona Macrae and Roger Dobson

PUBLISHED: 18:36 EST, 15 June 2012 | UPDATED: 18:55 EST, 15 June 2012

Pocket-sized solutions: The Tempe spray helps prevents premature ejaculation

He put smiles on millions of faces when he helped invent Viagra. Now the brains behind the little blue pills claims to have done it again.

Mike Wyllie, one of the team of scientists who developed Viagra in the 1990s, has created a drug that tackles premature ejaculation.

He predicts the spray-on medication, designed to prolong the joy of sex for millions of sufferers and their partners, is likely to become the next blockbuster drug.

Premature ejaculation affects more than one in four men making it more common than the impotence tackled by Viagra. Most are too embarrassed to seek help and when they do, treatments are generally limited to powerful anti-depressants and counselling.

There is one pill specifically designed to treat the problem but it is expensive and not widely available in the UK. In contrast, it is hoped the spray, called Tempe, which could be on sale within months, will be cheap enough for prescription on the NHS.

In trials, some men using the spray ahead of sex lasted up to eight times longer. But the drug is generally thought to treble a mans staying power.

Dr Wyllie, formerly of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and now chief scientific officer of British biotech firm Plethora Solutions, calls Tempe his new Viagra.

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From an inventor of Viagra, a spray to help love last beyond a moment