Pharmacies warned:

Sex enhancement drugs only on doctor’s prescription

by Carol Aloysius

The Cosmetics Devices and Drugs Authority (CDDA) has cautioned pharmacies that sex enhancement drugs should be sold only on prescription of a registered medical practitioner. This is a sequel to the sharp increase in these drugs.

“There are around 30 registered brands of sex enhancement drugs available in pharmacies across the country and they should be sold only on a doctor’s prescription, as in the case of drugs such as antibiotics”, Senior Food and Drugs Inspector Amith Perera told the Sunday Observer.

The drugs, which were both locally manufactured and imported, are sold under their generic name Sildenafil, a 2 B drug ( ie. on prescription only). “But many pharmacies now contravene this regulation and sell these drugs even to those who don’t need them”. He said that the majority of users were in the age group 18-20 (school-leavers) and young adults in their early thirties. “These drugs are for impotent men with erectile dysfunction. If healthy young men continue to use these drugs for a long period of time, they could end up with erectile dysfunction”, he said.

While there were no exact figures on the quantity of drugs available in the country, the CDDA was gathering information since they were registered drugs. “We will go by the statistics on how these drugs were imported to the country from last year till last month, so that we can gauge the extent of their use”, he said.

Perera took the advertising industry to task for the “unethical promotion of such drugs, which was the main reason so many healthy young men were being drawn towards them. Using these drugs is a serious danger to their reproductive health”, he said.