I did my clinical trial comparing brand name Viagra, Figral and Maxifort. Now I have only one subject (me) and circumstances are different each time. Once I ate too much, slept too little, ordered a fat chica (like ‘em skinny), another time I am well rested, ate a light meal (rare) and Salma Hayek stands in the door. You get my drift: it is very difficult to compare the drugs when its only me and I am taking them in such different circumstances.

That being said, I bought all three drugs (Viagra from the Pharmacy on 2nd and Constitution, the others from Similares between 5th and 6th on Constitution) in the 100mg strength.

My usual dose is about one fourth of the pill, one hour before the lay. I usually repeat for the third session. I am buying the 100mg pill, because it is way cheaper to take pieces of that one than buying the 25mg pill. And I don’t think Figral or Maxifort even come in that strengthen.

1) Price: Maxifort/Figral cost about $4. It is less if you buy more, more if you buy fewer pills. Viagra was $16 for a single tablet.
2) Effect: I was very surprised how different the effect on me was. Now I took all three intermixed in about ¼ doses, but Viagra always had a much more reliable effect on Robertito while limited effect on vision, headache and other side effects such as upset stomach.
3) Side effects: By far the worst headache I got from Maxifort, less from Figral.
4) Ease of taking pieces: Viagra is very hard and difficult to bite into pieces, Maxifort is soft and Figral falls in between.

Why is there so much difference? One could be cynical I believe that the generics just don’t have enough of the Viagra ingredient, but I do not think that is true. Given the fact that Maxifort, and less so Figral, repeatedly given me raging boners and bad headaches, while at other times had minimal effect of Robertito makes me believe that either the Viagra in Maxifort (Figral) is not separated evenly, so you take one piece and it has all the stuff in it. Next time you take a different piece and it has none.
An alternative thought I have is that the pills are so soft; maybe they do not hold their ingredient as well after a while. I now try to keep my Maxifort/Figral stash sealed.
I recently bought 2 50mg pills of Figral (the pharmacists could not believe that I insisted on the lesser dose) to see if taking ½ pills and using them up within the same day reduces variability and fading effect. More on this later.

In conclusion, Maxifort is by far the worst in reliability and side effects, Figral second and Viagra may just (almost) be worth the price for the brand name drug.

Question: are there any pharmacists or medical doctors on the board who could shed light on this?

Caveat: This is only a one person trial and not sanctioned by the makers of Viagra.

Are Maxifort and Figral other brand names for Viagra, or they separate drugs?