Crackdowns on fake and unlicensed Viagra over potential health risks

BBC News joined investigators on diagnosing their medical problems and buying medicines online - boosting the growing trade in fake and unlicensed generic viagra supplied without a prescription.

Enforcement agencies warned that those taking fake and unlicensed generic viagra are risking their health, as they launched an international operation to tackle the problem.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulation Agency (MHRA) says more than a million doses of medicines worth approximately £2m have been seized from the UK's postal service and ports during its latest crackdown.

An additional 100,000 doses were discovered in raids by police and investigators - with a value of at least £200,000. Valium and Viagra - described by the MHRA as lifestyle drugs - are the most commonly sold.

But the agency warned that the counterfeiters are starting to offer drugs for cancer, heart conditions, epilepsy, asthma and depression. They are not interested in your health, they are interested in taking your money”.

Although the MHRA has discovered a pharmaceutical drugs factory in London, the drugs it seizes are usually manufactured in China or India, in further raids they looked for evidence of imported "product". The investigation began with intelligence gathered from monitoring a website advertising Kamagra - an Indian version of Viagra is not licensed for sale in Britain.

Accompanied by police officers, the team raided an address on a housing estate and arrested one man. Senior enforcement investigator Danny Lee-Frost said: "No-one involved in those websites is medically qualified. None of the products are licensed or tested. They were selling them to you as a drug dealer would, they are not interested in your health, they are interested in taking your money. And the money is big."

The house was searched, documents and computers seized, several safes sliced open with angle-grinders and more than £1,000 in cash was discovered - but no drugs. The investigators switched their focus to paperwork in the house which suggested the owner had been paying rent on a further two storage spaces. A team headed off to the first to investigate.

It turned out to be a room in a small office building. Again nothing was found. But upstairs, one of the MHRA's investigators discovered a box, half-full of fake and unlicensed generic viagra.

It was a small but useful find for the investigators, meaning the man they arrested can potentially be prosecuted. Pleased with their work so far, they drove over to the other address.

A rundown house in a residential area, it had bars on the windows and a bolted door. Using keys seized earlier, the investigators opened the door. Inside a grubby front room was a pile of boxes containing fake and unlicensed generic viagra.

The pills were Kamagra, according to Mr Lee-Frost. Fake and unlicensed generic viagra, which is popular in India but illegal to sell in the UK - and certainly illegal to supply without a prescription.

Kamagra is easily distinguishable from legitimate Genuine Viagra which is normally blue. It had been sent from Pakistan.

"We have seen some truly horrendous places where fake viagra has been stored," says Mr Lee-Frost. "Residential premises, stuff under the kitchen sink covered in dog urine, rats gnawing at them. They are just commodities."

The haul had a potential value in excess of £100,000 and the person who imported it could be prosecuted under the Misuse of Medicines act. He could be sued by Pfizer and is also being investigated for money-laundering.

Importers can break the medicines law in two ways - selling drugs not licensed for the UK and selling drugs made abroad, like fake viagra which can contain less active ingredient than they should.

The health risks of fake drugs are hard to quantify, the MHRA says. One haul of counterfeit fake and unlicensed generic viagra was tested and found to contain 98% of the active ingredient.

But the fake viagra was badly manufactured and would not properly dissolve in the body, posing an enormous health risk.

Another trick was to package fake viagra as a natural Chinese herbal remedy, designed to enhance sexual performance.

It would work, says the MHRA, but generic viagra should not be taken without speaking to a doctor.

Nine times in the last three years illegitimate drugs, like fake and unlicensed generic viagra have made it as far as a pharmacy.

The agency finds it extremely hard to quantify the risks. Records are not kept of patients who have suffered the ill-effects of illegal drugs, like fake viagra, partly because it is rarely obvious they have been the cause of health problems.

In some ways the biggest threat this market could pose is to the brand names and trademarks of the big pharmaceutical producers, such as Pfizer.

But the MHRA insists there are health risks - citing a recent survey of GPs suggesting one in four had treated patients made ill by fake viagra bought online.

The MHRA's advice is simple: Do not buy anything off the internet without a prescription. Legal internet pharmacies should always ask for one.

For more news stories about Viagra please click here.