Viagra Professional, Soft Tabs and Melts: Do Sublingual and Chewable ED Tablets Work Faster?

"Viagra Professional", "Cialis Professional", Cenforce Professional and Fildena Professional are sold online as sublingual tablets that dissolve under the tongue and work faster. "Soft" tabs are chewable versions of the same idea, and melts and oral strips dissolve on the tongue. None of these names belongs to a product approved in the United States. The dissolving, film and chewable forms that regulators have approved were tested against ordinary tablets, and what they found is that these forms deliver the same drug, mostly at the same speed, with some new rules about food and water.

This guide sets out what each label and study actually measured: time to peak blood level, the effect of food and water, the small studies behind the "faster" claim, and how quickly ordinary tablets already work. It covers sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil. Whether generic sildenafil matches Viagra in general is covered separately in our guide to whether generic Viagra works as well as Viagra.

The short answer

Regulators who tested dissolving and chewable versions found them bioequivalent to the ordinary tablet, not faster. On their US labels, the vardenafil melt tablet reaches peak blood level at a median of 90 minutes and the chewable tadalafil at 162 minutes, against 60 and 120 minutes for the ordinary tablets. The sildenafil melt tablet is more sensitive to food than the ordinary tablet: a high-fat meal cut its peak level by 59% and delayed it by about 3.4 hours. The only evidence of faster early absorption comes from small studies of sildenafil placed under the tongue, mainly one study of 20 men that measured blood levels, not erections. A melt, film or chewable form is useful if you cannot swallow tablets or have no water. It is not a reliable way to get a quicker erection, and the dose limits and safety rules are the same.

What "Professional", "Soft" and melt versions are

These names describe how the tablet is meant to be taken, not a different drug.

Name you will see	How it is taken	Approved equivalent that has been tested
Professional (Viagra, Cialis, Cenforce, Fildena, Filitra Professional)	Placed under the tongue to dissolve	None approved for use under the tongue
Soft or chewable tabs	Chewed, then swallowed	Chewtadzy, tadalafil chewable tablets (US, 2024, since discontinued)
Melt, ODT (orally disintegrating tablet)	Dissolves on the tongue, swallowed with saliva	Viagra 50 mg orodispersible tablets (EU); Staxyn and generic vardenafil 10 mg ODT (US)
Oral film or strip (for example Tastylia)	Dissolves on the tongue	Vybrique sildenafil oral film, 25 to 100 mg (US, December 2025); Viagra 50 mg orodispersible film (EU); Viagra Connect Melts (UK)
Oral jelly	Swallowed from a sachet	None approved in the US, UK or EU

A melt tablet or film dissolving on the tongue is not the same thing as a tablet held under the tongue. With a melt tablet most of the drug is still swallowed and absorbed in the gut. True sublingual absorption, straight through the lining of the mouth, is what the "Professional" marketing claims, and it is the part with the least evidence behind it.

None of these brand names is an approved product

We searched the FDA's drug approval and NDC databases for "Viagra Professional", "Cialis Professional", Cenforce, Fildena, Tadalista, Tastylia and Kamagra, and found no matches. The only Viagra in Drugs@FDA is the ordinary 25, 50 and 100 mg tablet. There is no FDA-approved sildenafil melt tablet; the one approved sildenafil film is Vybrique from IBSA, approved on 16 December 2025 in 25, 50, 75 and 100 mg, and the only approved chewable tadalafil, Chewtadzy, is now listed as discontinued.

Pfizer does not make a product called Viagra Professional, and Lilly does not make Cialis Professional. Tablets sold under those names are made by other companies, usually in India, for markets outside the United States. That does not tell you whether a given batch contains the right amount of drug; it tells you no regulator in the US has reviewed it. The FDA has also warned US companies that sell compounded chewable sildenafil and tadalafil, for example in a September 2025 warning letter to BlueChew, that compounded drugs are not FDA-approved and must not be described as the same as approved products.

How fast an ordinary ED tablet is absorbed

The yardstick for "faster" is the ordinary swallowed tablet, and the US labels give its numbers. Sildenafil reaches peak blood level within 30 to 120 minutes, with a median of 60 minutes, when taken fasting. Vardenafil film-coated tablets peak between 30 minutes and 2 hours, median 60 minutes. Tadalafil peaks between 30 minutes and 6 hours, median 2 hours.

Peak level is not the same as the moment an erection becomes possible. Blood levels rise from the first minutes, and in trials many men respond well before the peak, as the onset section below shows. That matters here, because a form that reaches peak a little sooner may make no practical difference.

What regulators found when they tested melt tablets and films

When Pfizer added a 50 mg orodispersible (melt) tablet to Viagra in Europe, the European Medicines Agency's committee gave a positive opinion on 21 February 2013. The key study gave 36 healthy men aged 45 or older the melt tablet without water and the ordinary 50 mg tablet. The EU product information states that the melt tablet taken without water was bioequivalent to the film-coated tablet.

Taken with water, the result changed. Total exposure was unchanged, but mean peak level was 14% lower than the ordinary tablet, and the lower end of its confidence interval, 79.76%, fell just outside the 80% limit, so bioequivalence was shown for total exposure but not for peak level. The label allows the melt tablet with or without water.

Viagra's 50 mg orodispersible film, also in the EU product information, was bioequivalent to the 50 mg tablet in one study of 80 men without water and another of 40 men with water. The film's food effect has not been studied, and the label says one similar to the melt tablet's is expected. Published studies of sildenafil films from other makers tell the same story: in a 2023 report of two studies, the film's peak level was 1.02 times the reference tablet's with and without water, inside the bioequivalence range. Same drug, same exposure, no speed advantage shown.

The US now has its own sildenafil film. Vybrique's label says it is placed on the tongue to dissolve and swallowed with saliva, without the need for water, and gives a median time to peak of 80 minutes fasting, with a range of 30 to 300 minutes. That is 20 minutes later than the median on the Viagra tablet label, though the two figures come from separate studies.

The vardenafil melt tablet delivers more drug, not quicker drug

Vardenafil is the one case where the melt tablet behaves differently, and the difference is in amount rather than speed. Bayer's Staxyn, a 10 mg vardenafil melt tablet, was approved in the US in 2010. Its label says it gives higher total exposure than the 10 mg film-coated tablet: in men with ED, mean exposure (AUC) was 21% to 29% higher while peak level was 8% to 19% lower, and in healthy volunteers peak and total exposure were 15% and 44% higher. A pharmacokinetic study put this down to part of the dose being absorbed through the lining of the mouth.

Because of that, the label says plainly that Staxyn is not interchangeable with vardenafil 10 mg film-coated tablets, that the maximum is one melt tablet in 24 hours, and that men who need a lower or higher dose must use the film-coated tablets. Its median time to peak was 1.5 hours fasting, half an hour later than the ordinary vardenafil tablet's 60 minutes. Staxyn itself is now listed as discontinued, with a Federal Register note that this was not for safety or effectiveness reasons, while two generic vardenafil 10 mg melt tablets remain approved for prescription. For the film-coated tablet at higher doses, see our Filitra 40 mg review.

Chewable tadalafil: bioequivalent, and still about 2.7 hours to peak

Chewtadzy, chewable tadalafil tablets of 5, 10 and 20 mg, was approved in the US in June 2024 as a new dosage form. In the FDA's review, the chewable 20 mg was compared with Cialis 20 mg swallowed whole with water in 39 fasting volunteers. The ratios were 97.04% for peak level and 96.84% for total exposure, and the FDA concluded the two were bioequivalent. Chewing did not speed things up: the label gives a median time to peak of 2.7 hours, against 2 hours on the Cialis label.

The label tells you to chew it completely before swallowing, not to swallow it whole and not to split it, and says it can be taken with or without food or water. It was not indicated for once daily use for ED alone, because the 2.5 mg daily dose could not be made from its lowest strength of 5 mg; it was indicated at 5 mg once daily for BPH and for ED with BPH. All three strengths are now listed as discontinued in Drugs@FDA, again with a Federal Register note that this was not for safety or effectiveness reasons.

Tadalafil films have been tested too. A 20 mg film was bioequivalent to the tablet in a 2018 study of 36 men, with a peak level ratio of 0.927. Another 20 mg film study, published in 2024, was bioequivalent fasting but not after food, where its peak level was clearly lower than the tablet's. For daily and as-needed tadalafil on ordinary tablets, see our generic Cialis guide.

Time to peak on the labels

Set side by side, the US labels do not show the dissolving, film or chewable forms reaching peak sooner. These figures come from separate studies, so treat the chart as a summary of what each label states, not a race.

Product and form	Median time to peak, fasted	Label
Sildenafil tablet (Viagra)	60 min (range 30 to 120)	Viagra US label, 12.3
Sildenafil oral film (Vybrique)	80 min (range 30 to 300)	Vybrique US label, 12.3
Vardenafil film-coated tablet	60 min (range 30 to 120)	Vardenafil US label, 12.3
Vardenafil 10 mg melt tablet (Staxyn)	90 min (range 45 to 150)	Staxyn US label, 12.3
Tadalafil tablet (Cialis)	120 min (range 30 min to 6 h)	Cialis US label, 12.3
Tadalafil chewable (Chewtadzy)	162 min (range 30 min to 4.5 h)	Chewtadzy US label, 12.3

Food: the melt tablet's weak spot

The clearest difference between forms is food, and it runs against the melt tablet. According to the EU product information, when the 50 mg sildenafil melt tablet was taken with a high-fat meal, median time to peak was delayed by about 3.4 hours, and peak level and total exposure fell by about 59% and 12% compared with taking it fasting. For the ordinary sildenafil tablet the US label reports a 60 minute delay and a 29% lower peak. The EU label therefore recommends taking the melt tablet on an empty stomach.

Form	Effect of a high-fat meal on peak level	Source
Sildenafil 50 mg melt tablet	About 59% lower; peak about 3.4 h later	EU Viagra product information, 5.2
Sildenafil oral film (Vybrique)	45% lower; peak about 87 min later; total exposure unchanged	Vybrique US label, 12.3
Vardenafil 10 mg melt tablet	35% lower; total exposure and time to peak unchanged	Staxyn US label, 12.3
Sildenafil tablet	29% lower; peak about 60 min later	Viagra US label, 12.3
Tadalafil 20 mg chewable	About 13% lower (ratio 87.19%); total exposure about 12% higher; not clinically significant per its label	FDA Chewtadzy clinical pharmacology review
Tadalafil tablet	Not influenced by food	Cialis US label, 12.3

So a melt tablet taken after dinner can work later than an ordinary tablet taken at the same time, which is the opposite of what "fast acting" marketing suggests. Our guide to taking sildenafil safely covers timing with meals for the ordinary tablet.

Water: why some forms must be taken dry

Water matters for the melt tablets in different ways. The Staxyn label says that when the vardenafil melt tablet was swallowed with water, total exposure fell by 29% and median time to peak was shortened by 60 minutes, while peak level was unchanged. Its trials were run without water, and the label says it should be taken without liquid. For the sildenafil melt tablet, taking it with water lowered mean peak level by 14% with no change in total exposure, and the EU label allows it either way. The chewable tadalafil's FDA review found no meaningful difference with or without water, and Vybrique's label reports no clinically significant difference with or without water when taken after food.

The practical rule is simple: follow the instructions for the specific product, because they differ.

Under the tongue: the studies behind the "faster" claim

The "Professional" claim is that a tablet held under the tongue is absorbed directly and works sooner. The published evidence for that is thin.

• A 2004 study gave 20 mg of sildenafil under the tongue to 20 men and placebo to 20 others. Mean onset was 15.5 minutes, and 65% succeeded against 15% on placebo. There was no group taking an ordinary tablet, so it cannot show sublingual use is faster.
• A 2003 Italian study of 30 men compared their own experience on oral sildenafil for three months and then sublingual use. Reported onset fell from 62.8 to 29.3 minutes. It was unblinded and always ran in the same order, which favours the second treatment.
• A 2018 study gave 20 men with psychogenic ED 50 mg of sildenafil three ways: a tablet swallowed, a melt tablet under the tongue and a film under the tongue. At 15 minutes, mean blood levels were 2.24, 0.5 and 13.5 ng/mL. At that point the film gave higher levels and the melt tablet lower ones, though over the first hour both delivered more drug than the swallowed tablet (184% and 304% of its exposure). Headache was reported less often with the film. Onset of erection was not measured.
• A 2018 study of a 50 mg sildenafil film placed under or on top of the tongue in 12 men found no difference in time to peak between the two positions.
• The largest comparison we found, a 2021 randomised crossover trial in 120 men, compared a sildenafil orally disintegrating strip with the tablet over 8 weeks each. Erectile function improved on both, and there was no statistically significant difference in earliest onset of action, although the strip's onset was 7.1 minutes earlier on average, which the authors said some patients may find meaningful.

Sildenafil 50 mg, 20 men (De Toni 2018)	Mean level at 15 min (ng/mL)	Exposure in first 60 min, relative to tablet
Tablet, swallowed	2.24	100%
Melt tablet, under the tongue	0.5	183.8%
Film, under the tongue	13.5	304.2%

Taken together: the one sizeable randomised comparison found no significant difference in onset, and the studies suggesting faster action are small, mostly unblinded, or measured blood levels rather than erections. No study we found tested a branded "Professional" tablet such as Cenforce or Fildena Professional against an ordinary tablet.

How fast ordinary tablets already work

The faster claim also sets a low bar for the ordinary tablet. In trials that timed it, many men responded within 15 to 30 minutes of a standard tablet.

Drug and study	What was measured	Result
Sildenafil, Padma-Nathan 2003 (115 vs 113 men)	Erection leading to successful intercourse	35% within 14 min and 51% within 20 min, vs 22% and 30% on placebo; median 36 min vs 141 min
Sildenafil 50 mg, Eardley 2002 (17 men, laboratory)	Time to onset of erection with visual stimulation	Median 27 min (range 12 to 70); 71% within 30 min
Tadalafil, Rosen 2004	Earliest time better than placebo	20 mg: from 16 min; 10 mg: from 26 min in a secondary analysis
Vardenafil, Montorsi 2004 (732 men)	Earliest time better than placebo	From 10 to 11 min (10 and 20 mg)
Vardenafil melt tablet, Debruyne 2011 (post hoc)	Successful intercourse within 15 min	62.5% vs 29.4% placebo, comparable to film-coated tablets

The authors of the vardenafil melt tablet analysis concluded that its onset was comparable with the film-coated tablet. In other words, the approved melt form was quick because vardenafil is quick, not because the melt form was quicker. For how long each drug lasts once it works, see our guide to how long sildenafil lasts.

Does the melt tablet work as well?

The vardenafil melt tablet was tested in two 12 week placebo controlled trials, with about half the men aged 65 or older. In the first, mostly in Europe, completed intercourse (SEP3) rose to 65% of attempts against 26% on placebo; in the second, mostly in North America, 60% against 27%. Erectile function scores rose by 8.7 and 8.5 points against 1.6 and 1.5 on placebo. All differences were statistically significant.

These are good results, but they belong to the approved vardenafil melt tablet in the trials, taken as directed, without water. They say nothing about an unapproved sublingual tablet from another maker. The sildenafil melt tablet and films were approved on bioequivalence, so they are expected to work like the ordinary tablet, which has its own large trial record.

Who a melt, film or chewable form may suit

The real advantage of these forms is convenience. They suit men who have trouble swallowing tablets, men who want to take a dose without water, and men who simply prefer them. For vardenafil there is also the higher exposure of the melt tablet, which is why it was approved as a fixed 10 mg dose and kept separate from the tablets.

They are a poor choice if the goal is a quicker erection after a meal, because food slows the sildenafil melt tablet more than the ordinary tablet. And none of them changes how long the drug lasts: tadalafil still covers up to 36 hours whatever form it comes in, which makes a few minutes of onset largely irrelevant for it.

The dose and frequency rules do not change

• Sildenafil melt tablet (EU): the usual dose is 50 mg about an hour before sex on an empty stomach. Men who need 100 mg take two 50 mg melt tablets one after the other, the second once the first has dissolved. Maximum once a day. A 25 mg dose must use the ordinary tablet.
• Vardenafil melt tablet: one 10 mg tablet about an hour before sex, at most once in 24 hours, placed on the tongue and taken without liquid. It cannot be swapped for the 10 mg tablet. The label says not to use it with strong or moderate CYP3A4 inhibitors, in moderate or severe liver impairment or on kidney dialysis, and not to start vardenafil with it in men taking alpha blockers.
• Chewable tadalafil: chew completely, do not swallow whole or split; as needed for ED, or 5 mg once daily only for BPH or ED with BPH.
• Do not take two forms or two ED medicines on the same day. A sublingual tablet plus an ordinary tablet is a double dose of the same drug class.

Strengths above the labelled maximum, such as 40 mg vardenafil or 60 mg and higher tadalafil sold as "professional" or "extra" versions, sit outside what any label covers. Our guide to ED medicine doses sets out the labelled ranges.

Safety is the same molecule's safety

A melt tablet, film or chewable contains the same active drug, so every warning on the ordinary label applies. The ones that matter most:

• Never take any of these with nitrates in any form, including nitroglycerin and "poppers", or with riociguat. Both combinations can cause a dangerous fall in blood pressure, and the labels list them as contraindications.
• Men who have been told sexual activity is unsafe for their heart should not use them. After a recent heart attack or stroke (within about the last 3 to 6 months, depending on the label), with unstable angina, very low blood pressure (below 90/50), uncontrolled high blood pressure or severe heart failure, the US labels say these medicines are not recommended, and the EU Viagra label lists recent heart attack, recent stroke and low blood pressure as contraindications.
• Men who have lost sight in one eye from non-arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy (NAION) should not use sildenafil under the EU label, and need specialist advice before any of these medicines.
• Alpha blockers and some antifungals, antibiotics and HIV medicines that block CYP3A4 change the dose you can safely take. The vardenafil melt tablet, which comes in one strength, must not be used with strong or moderate CYP3A4 inhibitors such as ketoconazole, itraconazole, ritonavir, clarithromycin or erythromycin, and vardenafil should not be started with it in men on alpha blockers.
• Get urgent help for an erection lasting more than four hours, sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes, or sudden loss or reduction of hearing.

The higher exposure of the vardenafil melt tablet also matters for older men: in men 65 or older its exposure was 39% higher than in men 45 or younger. For a broader look at how sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil differ, see our three way comparison.

Professional tadalafil and vardenafil sold online

The same "Professional" label is applied to tadalafil and vardenafil, for example Tadalista Professional and Filitra Professional. We found no published study of either against an ordinary tablet. For tadalafil, the case for a faster form is especially weak: its value is a long window, not speed, and the approved chewable version took longer to peak than the Cialis tablet. For vardenafil, the one approved melt form shows the risk of assuming a dissolving tablet behaves like the swallowed one: it delivered more drug, which is why it carries its own dose rules. By the same logic, a 20 mg vardenafil tablet held under the tongue may give more exposure than a 20 mg tablet swallowed, and no label covers that use.

Jellies and other "fast" forms

Oral jellies such as Kamagra Oral Jelly are sold on the same promise. No jelly is approved in the US, UK or EU, and we cover what is and is not known about them in our Kamagra Oral Jelly guide. The same logic applies: the drug is sildenafil, absorption still happens mostly in the gut, and the dose limits do not change because the form is easier to take.

Where SafeRxPills fits

SafeRxPills sells Indian sublingual, chewable and strip versions, including Fildena Professional (sildenafil 100 mg), Filitra Professional (vardenafil 20 mg) and Tastylia 10 mg and 2.5 mg tadalafil strips. These are not FDA-approved, they have not been tested against the approved forms described in this guide, and we do not claim they work faster than an ordinary tablet. ED medicines are prescription medicines in most countries. If you are unsure which form or dose suits you, our erectile dysfunction hub links to the rest of our guides, and a doctor or pharmacist can check your other medicines first.

Sources

• Viagra (sildenafil) EU product information, EMA EPAR, sections 4.2 and 5.2 (orodispersible tablets and films), last updated on the EMA site 13 October 2026. EMA
• EMA assessment report, Viagra extension to 50 mg orodispersible tablets, EMA/CHMP/633051/2012, CHMP opinion 21 February 2013. EMA
• Vybrique (sildenafil) oral film, US prescribing information, IBSA, section 12.3; Drugs@FDA NDA 210858, approved 16 December 2025. DailyMed.
• Sangkum P et al. Efficacy of the orally disintegrating strip sildenafil for the treatment of erectile dysfunction: a prospective, randomized trial. Sex Med 2021;9:100453. PMID 34710784.
• Viagra Connect Melts 50 mg orodispersible films, UK SmPC (revised November 2025). emc
• Staxyn (vardenafil) orally disintegrating tablets, US prescribing information, Bayer, revised 04/2023, sections 2, 8.5, 12.3, 14 and 17. FDA
• Chewtadzy (tadalafil) chewable tablets, US prescribing information, revised 06/2024, and FDA clinical pharmacology review, NDA 218527. FDA label, FDA review
• Viagra US prescribing information, Pfizer (rev 08/2017), section 12.3; Cialis US prescribing information, Lilly (rev 03/2026), section 12.3; vardenafil film-coated tablets US prescribing information (Zydus, 2026), section 12.3. DailyMed.
• FDA Drugs@FDA and NDC directory via openFDA: searches for sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil dosage forms and for the brand names above, 20 October 2026.
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This article is for information only and is not medical advice. Sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil are prescription medicines in most countries. Talk to a doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any treatment.