A new Viagra skin patch developed by a scientist team of King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, along with scientists of Cairo University, could get men in the mood for sex in a matter of minutes.

The new way developed to get the erection-boosting drug through the skin could slash the time it takes to work from up to an hour when taken as a pill, as the Sun reports.

The patch could be worn on the arm or abdomen, while the scientists hope it will increase the average length of time the drug works beyond the current four to five hours.

The team of scientists made plasters containing minute particles of the drug coated in thin layers of fat and chemicals to aid absorption into the skin.

The experimental patch was tested on rats to see how much of the medicine seeped through. It contained just one milligramme of Viagra, so human patches will need to be bigger to accommodate the 25mg to 50mg standard dose, as Daily Mail writes.

In a report in the journal Drug Design, Development and Therapy, scientists said the results showed Viagra particles successfully passed through the outer and inner layers of the skin.

The new Viagra patches could be ready in a few years and may limit some common side-effects of the pill such as headaches, indigestion and muscle pain.