"Three ED drugs are currently sold in Japan: Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis. In the study -- conducted from December 2008 to April 2009 by four pharmaceutical companies, including giants Pfizer and Bayer -- a package of each brand was ordered from some 60 Japanese language Internet sites in Japan and Thailand offering to act as personal import agents. The imported pills were then analyzed for content and their authenticity.
The study found that out of the 184 drug orders, 102 -- or 55 percent -- were fake. Drugs ordered from sites located in Japan were 44 percent counterfeit, while 68 percent from Thailand came up fakes. Some of the counterfeits contained twice the proper amount of the active pharmaceutical ingredient and others had none at all, while several impurities were also detected.
There have been reports in other countries of fake ED drugs causing damage to people's health. In one 2008 case in Singapore, one counterfeit drug was found to contain medication for bringing down blood sugar, causing victims to become lethargic and resulting in at least two deaths. In Thailand, one Japanese citizen has been connected to the sale of the fake medication.
That so many people buy fake ED drugs over the Internet may be because "it's a hard condition to talk about," says Dr. Ken Marumo, an urologist at Tokyo Dental College Ichikawa General Hospital, who participated in the study."
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