Cindy Eckert Readies Female Libido-Enhancing Pill for a 'Real Launch'
*By Max Godnick*
Sex, drugs, and $1 billion.
That was the title of Cindy Eckert's presentation at the Cornell eShip Summit in New York City on Friday. But it would also be a fitting title for her life story.
Eckert is best known as the the creator of [Addyi](http://time.com/5448807/female-desire-pill/), the female libido-enhancing pill commonly referred to by the media as "female Viagra."
Eckert, who is also the founder and CEO of The Pink Ceiling, an incubator for female-led start-ups, [sold Sprout Pharmaceuticals](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/business/dealbook/valeant-pharmaceuticals-to-buy-sprout-maker-of-addyi-female-viagra-drug.html) ー and Addyi along with it ー to Valeant Pharmaceuticals, now Bausch Health, for $1 billion in 2015. Complaints about the company's marketing and pricing of the drug led the original team to sue, and ultimately reach a settlement in which Sprout returned to its original shareholders.
Now that she's back as CEO, the first order of business is to correct the misconception that Addyi is the female Viagra.
"With Viagra, we're talking about a mechanical blood flow issue, with Addyi we're talking about desire," Eckert told Cheddar's Tim Stenovec of the difference.
When Addyi launched in 2015, there were 26 FDA-approved male sexual-enhancement drugs on the market, compared to just one for women. Eckert said the disparity speaks to the "societal narrative" of sex and how it's spoken about in everyday life.
"If something goes wrong for men in the bedroom, we immediately accept that it's biological," she said. "If something goes wrong for women in the bedroom, we think it's psychological."
With Eckert back at the helm, Addyi is now more accessible than ever. She said she did a "radical thing" for a drug company in immediately cutting the price in half. Now thirty pills retail for around $400. Insured customers pay no more than $25 a month, while those without coverage will never pay more than $99 a month.
Instead of a relaunch, Eckert refers to Sprout's new era as a "real launch."
"What was I going to do?" she asked. "Sit on the sidelines and just be frustrated that my team had fought so hard to overcome all of the societal bias, and finally having a drug for women breakthrough, and then the women who needed it didn't have access to it? Not my style."
The 116th Congress might be slightly more her speed.
This week's midterm elections saw a [record number of women](https://cheddar.com/videos/women-win-big-in-pink-tsunami-midterms) elected to the chamber. Eckert, who has devoted her career to improving access to capital for female-led start-ups, said she thinks the increased representation on Capitol Hill will only pay dividends for women at the negotiating table.
"It's indisputable that when you have diversity of thought at the table you're going to get to better outcomes," she said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/cindy-eckert-returns-as-ceo-of-company-she-sold-for-1-billion).
Sting has sold his catalog of more than 600 songs for $300 million to Universal Music. The deal gives the label the rights to all of his work, including “Every Breath You Take," as well as all future royalties.
Miller Lite is opening the first branded bar in the metaverse, by way of Decentraland, as a way to advertise during the Super Bowl this year without buying an expensive TV commercial slot. Sofia Colucci, global vice president of Miller Family of Brands, joined Cheddar to talk about the new marketing concept. "We have a lot of great partnerships with NFL teams throughout the year but were shut out of advertising during the Super Bowl game, so this pushes us to think creatively and also think of what feels really relevant right now," Colucci said. "There's no question that there's a lot of excitement with the metaverse, and we wanted to participate but in a way that felt right for Miller Lite."
Plans to add affordable housing to a development in Yellow Springs, Ohio, were squashed after comedian Dave Chappelle and other community members spoke out against the project. Chappelle threatened to pull the plug on his local comedy club and restaurant projects if the development had been approved.
Jason Moser, Senior Analyst at The Motley Fool, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to talk about the big takeaways from Disney's Q1 report, which showed the company nearing 130 million Disney+ subscribers as parks revenue ticks up.
The airline industry is seeing a major consolidation as Frontier and Spirit Airlines have agreed to merge in a deal valued at $6.6 billion dollars. Frontier will control just over 51% of the company, and Spirit will control the other 48%, creating what would become the fifth-largest airline in the U.S. The deal was approved over the weekend, with Spirit CEO Ted Christie saying that the merger aims to create an aggressive, low-fare competitor focused on consumer-friendly pricing. John Grant, Senior Analyst at OAG explains the gravity of the merger, and the wider impact it could have on competition and the airline industry as a whole.
Cheeze, Inc. is a media platform that hopes to help photographers to tell stories through the use of NFT’s. Simon Hudson, founder and CEO of Cheeze, Inc. joined Cheddar News to explain the process as well as teasing its "Women of Authenticity" display for Women’s History Month. "We've made it very simple and focused very hard on reducing all of the friction to bring their items to the blockchain." Hudson explained. He also addressed reports that cloud software giant Salesforce could be getting into the NFT marketplace.
President Biden's push for electric vehicles is doing more than trying to hold off climate change as it also hopes to revive American manufacturing jobs. The latest company to open an EV charging production plant in the U.S. is Australia-based Tritium, looking to open its new Lebanon, Tennessee, facility in the fall of 2022. It's expected to create at least 500 jobs in the region and reach a production capacity of 10,000 charging units per year. Jane Hunter, CEO and executive director of Tritium, joined Closing Bell to discuss the plant, production capacity, and working with the Biden administration. "The policies that they put in place have directly driven demand for our fast charging products," she said. "Discussions that we have are just incredibly positive because this administration wants to have an electric superhighway that runs all across the country so that it's open equitably for all people to drive electric vehicles."
