Dodgy Viagra is now Britain’s biggest counterfeit drug with more than £6.2million of dodgy little blue pill seized by UK regulators last year.
The sum means more supplies of the erectile dysfunction drug were impounded than knock-off versions of painkillers like morphine.
Health officials said online retailers flouting regulations were behind the counterfeit supplies with most being imported from countries like India without an appropriate licence.
Data, from UK regulator The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), show 2.6million doses of sildenafil, the generic name for the medication best known as Viagra, were confiscated last year.
Another half-million doses of tadalafil, another erectile dysfunction drug sold under the brand Cialis worth £1.2million were also seized.
Dodgy Viagra is now Britain’s biggest counterfeit drug with more than £6.2million of dodgy little blue pill seized by UK regulators last year. Stock image
Andy Morling, the MHRA’s head of enforcement told The Sun that many men are seeking cheaper drugs online or seeking to avoid going to bricks and mortar pharmacist out of embarrassment.
‘Online is the new front line this is almost exclusively an online trade,’ he said.
‘There are tens of thousands of websites globally and many of them sell in sterling and ship to the UK.’
TV pharmacist Thorrun Govind added that the consequences of buying dodgy medications could be catastrophic.
‘Fake medicines may not contain any of the active ingredients and may contain ingredients which are damaging to your health,’ she said.
Drugs sold on physical shelves in the UK must undergo strict quality control to ensure they are as safe as possible for people to use.
While all medications carry potential side effects drugs from unreliable sources may either not work or carry additional ingredients or contaminants like heavy metals or other drugs that could be dangerous.
Another reason to avoid buying chemical bedroom aides online is that the pills themselves can be dangerous.
Not all men, such as those with heart problems, should take drugs like sildenafil due to the potential impact the drug can have on the organ.
Reputable pharmacists will ask men interested in taking medications like Viagra a few questions about their health for this reason.
However, not all men are advised to take drugs like sildenafil, for example those with heart problems are warned against taking it.
In total, The Sun reported that the MHRA stopped 15.5million illegal doses of medication, worth £30million reaching Brits in 2023.
A total of 4.57million prescriptions for sildenafil, more commonly known by the brand name Viagra, and other types of impotency drugs sold under the brand names Cialis and Levitra, were dished out by the health service in 2023
Painkillers and sedatives were the most common type of medication to be impounded after erectile dysfunction medications.
It comes as data suggests millions of British men are now taking the libido boosting drug.
A total of 3million prescriptions of sildenafil for erectile dysfunction were dished out by the NHS in 2023 alone.
This doesn’t account for many other Brits buying it over the counter privately from high street or online pharmacies, with some options costing mere pennies per pill.
Separate data, released earlier this year, suggests use of sildenafil varies across the country.
That data suggested men in Yorkshire were the most likely in England to need assistance in the bedroom with 3.5 per cent of men in the East Riding being 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 in Northumberland and Dorset who each came second and third for prescription rates of the erectile dysfunction drug at around 3.2 per cent each.
The Yorkshire region appeared to be particularly hard-hit by impotency with its cities and towns Rotherham, Barnsley, Harrogate, Scarborough and Whitby, featuring in the top 10 areas for Viagra prescriptions.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, men in Leicester City appeared to be the least likely to need help from the little blue pill to maintain an erection, with a prescription rate of only 1.6 per cent.
While the vast majority of people taking sildenafil will experience no problems, an estimated one in 100 patients will suffer common side effects from taking the medication.
These include headaches, nausea, hot flushes, indigestion, a stuffy nose and dizziness, according to the NHS.
More serious side effects requiring urgent medical care are estimated to affect less than one in 1,000 people.
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These include seizures, suffering a prolonged and potentially painful erection especially for over 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 fatalities — all of which have occurred since 1998 — are proven to have been caused directly by the drugs.
Erectile dysfunction, also called impotency, is thought to effect about half of men over 40.
While most cases of erectile dysfunction are isolated and nothing to worry about, repeated or sustained impotency should be checked out by a GP.
This is because the issue can be an indicator of serious health problems like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, diabetes, hormone problems and mental issues like depression and anxiety.
