Dubious Viagra is now Britain’s biggest counterfeit drug, with more than £6.2 million worth of little blue pills of dubious quality seized by UK regulators last year.
The sum means that more supplies of the erectile dysfunction drug were confiscated than imitation versions of painkillers such as morphine.
Health officials said online retailers flouting regulations were behind the counterfeit supplies and most were imported from countries such as India without a proper license.
Data from the British regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), shows that 2.6 million doses of sildenafil, the generic name of the drug better known as Viagra, were confiscated last year.
Another half a million doses of tadalafil, another erectile dysfunction drug sold under the brand name Cialis worth £1.2m, were also seized.
Dubious Viagra is now Britain’s biggest counterfeit drug, with more than £6.2 million worth of little blue pills of dubious quality seized by UK regulators last year. stock image
Andy Morling, head of enforcement at the MHRA, said the sun that many men look for cheaper medications online or try to avoid going to traditional pharmacies out of embarrassment.
“Online commerce is the new front line; it is almost exclusively online commerce,” he said.
“There are tens of thousands of websites around the world and many of them sell in pounds sterling and ship to the UK.”
Television pharmacist Thorrun Govind added that the consequences of buying poor quality medicines could be catastrophic.
“Fake medicines may not contain any of the active ingredients and may contain ingredients that are harmful to health,” he said.
Medicines sold on physical shelves in the UK must undergo strict quality control to ensure they are as safe as possible for human use.
While all medications carry potential side effects, medications from untrustworthy sources may not work or may contain additional ingredients or contaminants such as heavy metals or other medications that could be dangerous.
Another reason to avoid buying bedroom chemicals online is that the pills themselves can be dangerous.
Not all men, such as those with heart problems, should take medications such as sildenafil due to the potential impact the drug can have on the organ.
For this reason, reputable pharmacists will ask men interested in taking medications like Viagra some questions about their health.
However, not all men are recommended to take medications such as sildenafil; For example, those with heart problems are warned not to do so.
In total, The Sun reported that the MHRA stopped 15.5 million illegal doses of drugs, worth £30 million, due to reach Britons in 2023.
In 2023, the health service distributed a total of 4.57 million prescriptions for sildenafil, better known under the brand name Viagra, and other types of impotence medications sold under the brand names Cialis and Levitra.
Painkillers and sedatives were the most common type of medication seized after erectile dysfunction medications.
It comes as data suggests millions of British men are now taking the libido-boosting drug.
In 2023 alone, the NHS distributed a total of 3 million prescriptions for sildenafil for erectile dysfunction.
This doesn’t take into account that many other Brits buy it privately over the counter from high street pharmacies or online, with some options costing just a few pence per pill.
Separate data, released earlier this year, suggest that sildenafil use varies across the country.
That data suggested that men in Yorkshire were the most likely in England to need help in the bedroom: 3.5 per cent of men in the East Riding were prescribed sildenafil last year.
This map shows the areas where people were most and least likely to be prescribed sildenafil, the key ingredient in the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra on the NHS.
This was followed by men from Northumberland and Dorset, who came in second and third for rates of prescribing the ED drug, at around 3.2 per cent each.
The Yorkshire region appeared to be particularly affected by impotence, with its cities and towns Rotherham, Barnsley, Harrogate, Scarborough and Whitby all featuring in the top 10 areas for Viagra prescriptions.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Leicester City men appeared to be the least likely to need help from the little blue pill to maintain an erection, with a prescription rate of just 1.6 per cent.
While the vast majority of people taking sildenafil will not experience problems, it is estimated that one in 100 patients will experience common side effects when taking the medication.
These include headaches, nausea, hot flashes, indigestion, nasal congestion and dizziness, according to the NHS.
More serious side effects requiring urgent medical attention are estimated to affect less than one in 1,000 people.
These include seizures, suffering a prolonged and potentially painful erection, especially for more than two hours, chest pain and, in very rare cases, a life-threatening allergic reaction to the medication called anaphylaxis.
Earlier this year, MailOnline revealed that popular erection pills such as Viagra have been linked to more than 200 deaths in Britain.
None of the deaths (all occurring since 1998) have been directly caused by drugs.
Erectile dysfunction, also called impotence, is believed to affect approximately half of men over 40 years of age.
While most cases of erectile dysfunction are isolated and there is nothing to worry about, repeated or sustained impotence should be examined by a primary care physician.
This is because the problem can be an indicator of serious health problems such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, diabetes, hormonal problems, and mental problems such as depression and anxiety.