FORT LEE, N.J. -- A New Jersey drug company says an inhaler it's working on could be the long-sought female version of Viagra.

Palatin Technologies of Fort Lee says it has had encouraging results in both men and women with Bremolanotide, which stimulates the brain, rather than the genitals.

The company's director of preclinical development said it may help women with female sexual dysfunction, who lack desire and have trouble getting aroused.

The company said female sexual dysfunction consists of hypoactive sexual desire disorder, female sexual arousal disorder, dyspareunia or painful intercourse, and anorgasmia. To establish a diagnosis, these components must be associated with personal distress, as determined by the affected woman.

Erectile dysfunction is defined as the consistent inability to attain and maintain an erection sufficient for sexual intercourse, and is associated with increasing age, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and smoking.

Here's what makes Bremelanotide different. According to a Palatin statement, Bremelanotide is the first compound in a new drug class called melanocortin receptor agonists under development to treat sexual dysfunction. Unlike current erectile dysfunction treatments that act on the vascular system, it acts on the neural pathway that controls sexual function.

Palatin said that, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, some form of female sexual dysfunction appears to be prevalent in approximately 43 percent of the female population. Erectile dysfunction affects about one half of all men over the age of 40 and about 150 million men worldwide.