Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (4687)	7/31/1998 11:39:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

Soho swoop on illegal Viagra by John Sturgis Evening Standard Britain's first haul of illegal Viagra has been seized in a swoop in Soho. The raid on an unlicenced sex shop uncovered Viagra being sold openly on the black market. A cache of the anti-impotency drug was seized from the store in a joint operation by Westminster council, the Medicines Control Agency and the Metropolitan police. "We received information that the drug Viagra was being sold at an unlicenced shop in Soho," a council spokesman said today. "Plain clothes officers from the MCA made a test purchase. They were sold pills that appeared to be Viagra and subsequently raided the shop. "The person who had made the sale was interviewed. He may be charged with unlicenced sale of the drug and will certainly be prosecuted for the sale of unlicenced videos and CD Roms, which were also seized." The spokesman added: "This is, as far as we are aware, the first seizure of its kind in this country. The drug Viagra has not as yet been licenced in the UK and, if and when it is licenced, it will only be available by prescription from GPs or hospitals." It is understood that yesterday's raid came after a Westminster council worker spotted a sign in the shop window advertising the drug. He notified colleagues who arranged the raid, led by two officers from the MCA, an agency run by the Department of Health, with two council officials and two officers from Scotland Yard's Obscene Publications Squad also in attendance. The plain clothes officers were sold a pill, costing œ40, which was blue and diamond-shaped. When they searched the shop they found 14 labelled boxes, each containing five or six identical tablets. A 38-year-old man was questioned but not arrested. "They appeared to be bona fide supplies of Viagra, bearing the maker's name, though obviously we will have to have them tested to confirm they are the real thing before any prosecution can go ahead," said the council spokesman. Councillor Kevin Gardner, chairman of the licencing sub-committee, said: "Shop owners should be warned - the council is always vigilant and we will take strong action against illegal activities of this sort. Viagra is not available to the general public and we'll do everything we can to prevent illegal sales." The seizure comes just a week after reports that the pill is being sold to young nightclubbers in the South-East for around œ25 a time, and has been consumed alongside the drug ecstacy. Viagra has become one of the most successful drugs in the history of modern medicine in the three months since it was launched in the US. Since then over two million men have taken it. c Associated Newspapers Ltd., 31 July 1998 This Is London thisislondon.co.uk