UPDATE: China's fake Rx drug factories exposed, imitation Viagra "would give overdose"

An undercover report by the UK's Sunday Times newspaper has revealed that a Chinese factory is allegedly producing counterfeit Viagra (sildenafil citrate) tablets with three times the permitted dose. Undercover reporters posing as representatives of a UK-based prescription drug wholesale firm were even offered large quantities of cardiovascular and oncological products.

The report claims that Gabriel Zhang, a Tianjin-based businessman, offered to manufacture 200,000 packages per month of three drugs: the antiplatelet agent Plavix (clopidogrel), which is co-marketed in the UK by France's Sanofi-Aventis and the USA-based Bristol-Myers Squibb, Anglo-Swedish drug major AztraZeneca's oncology product Casodex (bacalutamide); and US firm Eli Lilly's schizophrenia drug Zyprexa (olanzapine). All three drugs were the subject of product recalls ordered by the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA; Marketletter June 11), after fake batches were found entering the country.

"Viagra" had excess active ingredient