Seventeen years after Viagra, the blockbuster anti-impotency pill, hit the market, not a single medicine has been formally approved for sexual problems in women.

Now, the makers of a drug that purports to boost a woman’s libido by targeting her brain are launching their third attempt to win American government approval, amid a debate over whether there has been a gender bias in the high-stakes field of sexual pharmacology — or a manufactured cure for a medical disease that may not exist.

Next week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hold a public hearing to review new safety data for flibanserin, a once-a day drug Sprout Pharmaceuticals says restores sexual desire in women by “fixing” an imbalance of brain chemicals that drive sexual excitement and inhibition.

Twice the FDA has rebuffed flibanserin, dubbed “pink Viagra,” over safety and efficacy concerns, leading to charges that the agency is sexist for approving sexual medicines for men, but not for women. Other women’s groups are furious for what they see as a hijacking of feminist rhetoric by drug-company orchestrated campaigns designed to put political pressure on regulators to approve a pill for a “hypoactive” sex drive.

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