The Viagra battle!
As part of a global crackdown on counterfeit drug sales by the pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer, dozens of sites that offer fake Viagra tablets online are being closed down.
One of the affected sites is a London-based firm that illegitimately sells Viagra tablets at incredibly low prices and claims that every sale is supervised by qualified doctors. The site was allegedly set up to illegally sell generic copies of the wonder drug and used Viagra in its address – a breach of Pfizer's trademark.
The beleaguered company has gone to court to seek redress.
According to the company, all applications were vetted by qualified doctors and that the diamond-shaped blue pills were only available on private prescription.
The company's decision to file a lawsuit, which hit websites based in Gibraltar and the UK, comes in the wake of revelations in the Sunday Independent that potentially dangerous supplies of counterfeit copies of Viagra tablets were being peddled by British online pharmacies.
Pfizer, through a spokesman, said it hopes the action of the company would alert consumers to the risks of buying Viagra tablets from unauthorised online pharmacies.
According to the Medicines Control Agency, a Special Enquiry Unit has been established within the agency’s enforcement division to target the illicit sales of Viagra pills, because of growing concern about the high level of public interest in the wonder drug.
The MCA, in a strongly worded warning, said yesterday: Viagra is a very potent medicinal product and should only be used in conformity with the guidance of a qualified doctor.
To further show the Agency’s commitment at curbing the menace of fake Viagra, a confidential tip-off hotline was recently set up for anyone who can help the enquiry unit with information.
At present, Viagra controls about 70 per cent of the global erectile dysfunction market, while comes a distant second at almost 20 per cent.
The ED drug by the biggest drug manufacturer, hit UK supermarket shelves last year after being launched in the US, with fans purportedly including Kate Moss, Madonna and TV food guru Gillian McKeith.
Already, there are two Pfizer factories in Europe producing the best-selling drug – one in France the other in Ireland.
Mr Yonge, who lives in south-eastern Spain and deals in illegally deals in Viagra tablets, after his apprehension, claimed he had been misled into believing his supplies were legitimate and said he would abandon the business.
However, his website was back up and running, revealing another gap in the rules on the sale of exclusively prescribed drugs such as Viagra in the EU.
A spokesman, however, dispels this notion, claiming that Yonge’s supplies were now legally purchased and real Viagra tablets, that the man’s company was now legally registered last week, and that selling and buying Viagra tablets with no prescription in Spain was totally legal.
Analysts believe that worldwide sales of erectile dysfunction medications could total 3 billion pounds a year by the middle of the decade, with the United States being by far the largest and most lucrative market.
In order to benefit from this projection, Levitra, a new ED drug, was launched in 2003 to capture sales from the very successful blue pills which turned male impotence into a multibillion- dollar drug market since coming on in the 1990s.
Thus far, the sale of Levitra has been disappointing, while Viagra is also showing signs of flagging in sales.
