Vietnam has legalized Viagra years after copied versions of the drug first hit the black market.

Genuine Viagra will now be prescribed in public hospitals, said an official in the ministry's pharmaceutical products management department, who asked not to be named.

Viagra has been sold illegally in the communist nation for around two dollars a tablet and locally-made versions have been sold on prescription for the past two years.

According to official figures, around two million of Vietnam's more than 40 million men suffer from erectile dysfunction and welcome the legalisation of the erectile dysfunction drug.

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