Food company Lick Me I’m Delicious announced it had been commissioned by an A-list celebrity to make Viagra containing ice cream earlier this month, explaining that the customer in question served it at a party and was “very happy with the end result​.”

According to the UK-based firm, a standard two-ball serving of the Viagra ice cream – named “The Arousal” – contained around 50mg of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) sildenafil, which is equivalent to a single tablet of the prescription only drug.

Viagra is approved for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension.

It is also widely used recreationally with, according to one 2010 study published in the journal of International Society of Sexual Medicines​, around 21% of healthy men aged 18 to 30 admitting to having used it to enhance sexual performance.

This finding confirmed an earlier report in the American Medical Journal​, which had suggested that Pfizer's medicine is commonly used off-label and warned that, like any prescription drug, Viagra has side effects.

Safety first?​

Whether the unnamed celebrity ordered the Viagra-laced ice cream to prevent his or her party being ruined by a mass outbreak of pulmonary arterial hypertension is unclear.

Another possibility is that, inspired by research published in the British Journal of Pharmacology in 2008​, the A-lister in question was trying to ensure that their guests did not suffer ethanol-induced gastric damage as a result of any libations imbibed at said shindig. However, this also is just speculation.

What is certain is that Pfizer does not approve of off-label use of its drug.

A spokeswoman for the US drugmaker told in-Pharmatechnologist.com that: “Viagra is a prescription only medication. Sildenafil should always be used as prescribed by a healthcare professional and in accordance with its approved labelling​.”

The firm did not respond when asked if it planned to try and identify the source of the Viagra used in the ice cream.

Similarly, Lick Me I’m Delicious did not respond when we asked if the Viagra it used had been prescribed to one of its team of flavour scientists.