Sildenafil citrate (VIAGRA)

Three people have been found guilty of conspiracy to supply millions of pounds worth of counterfeit Viagra and drugs used to treat male hair loss.

A fourth man also admitted to Kingston Crown Court his involvement in the scam and has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

Investigators say the convictions are the result of the biggest counterfeit drugs bust in British history.

The fake medicines were made in factories in India, China and Pakistan.

A chance interception by UK customs officers of a parcel containing 12,000 fake Viagra tablets addressed to 58-year-old gang member Gary Haywood led to a huge investigation spanning three continents.

Forged packaging

Large quantities of the counterfeit drugs were shipped into the UK from factories abroad, before being repackaged and sold over the internet to customers in Britain, the US, Canada and the Bahamas.

The trial at Kingston Crown Court heard the products, which contained around 90% of the normal active ingredient found in authentic tablets, were placed in forged packaging with fake logos and patient information leaflets.

The scale of the counterfeiting was exposed when Haywood, from Leicester, who claimed to be working for drugs firm Pfizer, told undercover investigators on camera that “within 6-8 weeks I will be able to supply up to a million tablets”.

The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) went on to search Haywood’s Leicestershire home and found more than £1.5m of counterfeit drugs.

‘Lifestyle drugs’

The MHRA said the conspiracy involved fake versions of Pfizer’s Viagra, prescribed to treat men suffering from impotence or erectile dysfunction, Eli Lilly’s competitor product Cialis and Merck & Co’s Propecia, used to treat male baldness.

BBC correspondent Jon Brain said the gang relied on customer embarrassment about buying so-called “lifestyle medicines” to prevent them from complaining to the authorities.

Sarah Jarvis from the Royal College of General Practitioners warned against taking such counterfeit drugs.

She told BBC News 24: “It is highly likely that the people who buy these drugs online would not dream of going out into the back streets of India and eating off the floor their lunch from a street cafe, and yet that’s effectively what they’re doing.”

If a lady is engaging in relations with a male partner, and knows or has reason to believe that he has taken Viagra prior to their coupling, is it considered poor manners for her to make reference of this during the act?

Why would a lady assume that a gentleman’s robustness or longevity in bed is incited by anything other than his desire for her? Even if she caught sight of him ingesting a pill prior to lovemaking, she should feign ignorance. If the gentleman makes mention of having taken the drug, the lady would still do best to keep her comments to herself, in case the gentleman is “joking” as a subterfuge.

I have found that Viagra really does work with me BUT my wife and I have to be in the mood for intimacy first.  I take it about an hour before making love (which for us is usually mid afternoon.)  My erections are firmer and I can last for quite awhile and we usually have foreplay (both manual and oral) for at least a half hour, then intercourse for 15 minutes or so.  After she is satisfied, I’ll go for it.  I have found that if my orgasm “builds” for a few minutes, it’s pure dynamite!  We have never tried repeating that same day, but if the mood returns after two days or so, I can repeat.  I cut a 50 mg in half and find that to be enough.