Effective ED Treatment. Private. Convenient. Trusted.
Doctor-prescribed ED medication delivered discreetly to your door.
Physicians
Private
Delivery
ED3 Max Dissolvable ED Pills
Long-lasting results up to 36 hours.
- Up to 36 Hour Window
- Improved Confidence
- Works When You Need It
Sildenafil 25mg
Proven effective treatment.
- Starts Working in 30–60 Min
- Effective, As Needed
- Trusted & Reliable
ED4 Chew Gum
Low daily dose for continuous readiness.
- Taken Once Daily
- Continuous Readiness
- Improves Confidence
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- A Few Definitions
- Developing Countries Hard Hit
- What These Fake Drugs Contain
- What Fueled the Dark Web’s Rise?
- Pirate Radio Stations Tout Fake Drugs
- For the Real Article
Introduction
The problem of counterfeit drugs isn’t new, but it’s growing despite the best efforts of national and international drug regulatory agencies to stop it. The purveyors of fake drugs have grown increasingly sophisticated, producing counterfeit medications that are virtually indistinguishable from the genuine article. Among the most widely counterfeited medications are the oral erectile dysfunction drugs known as PDE5 inhibitors, including Viagra, Levitra, Cialis, Staxyn, and Stendra.
It is perhaps the counterfeiters’ use of cutting-edge technology that has bolstered the efforts of criminal syndicates to flood the pharmaceutical markets with counterfeit drugs. They have set up shop on the so-called dark web, the dingy recesses of the World Wide Web accessible only to those with special software.
The dark web is a marketplace for all types of drugs — legal and illegal — that can be had by anybody able to pay for them. When authorities get wise to a particular dark web shop or emporium selling counterfeit or illegal drugs, they shut it down, but others spring up almost overnight to take its place.
Counterfeiters have also resorted to pirate radio to advertise their goods. Even criminals need to tout their product line to generate consumer interest. The pirate radio phenomenon has been particularly problematic in East Asia.
Although the scourge of counterfeit medications is a problem throughout the world, it hits particularly hard in developing countries, many of which lack the sophisticated testing equipment to quickly and accurately detect fake drugs.
A Few Definitions
The problem of counterfeit medications is complex, complicated further by the presence in the market of other products that fail to meet national and international standards for quality and safety. At its 70th annual conference, the World Health Assembly, which governs the World Health Organization, defined three categories of medical products that pose a threat to public health.
These include substandard medical products, unregistered/unlicensed medical products, and falsified medical products. The third category is perhaps the easiest to understand because it includes the out-and-out counterfeit drugs.
- Substandard medical products are defined as “authorized medical products that fail to meet either their quality standards or their specifications, or both.” Such products are also sometimes labeled as “out of specification.”
- Unregistered/unlicensed medical products, according to the assembly’s definition, are “medical products that have not undergone evaluation and/or approval by the national or regional regulatory authority for the market in which they are marketed/distributed or used, subject to permitted conditions under national or regional regulation and legislation.”
- Falsified medical products, according to the WHO definition, are those that deliberately and fraudulently misrepresent their identity, composition, or source.
Developing Countries Hard Hit
Although counterfeit and substandard medications circulate in all markets worldwide, the problem is especially acute in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization. In a late 2017 report, the organization alleges that roughly 10 percent of all the medical products circulating in low- and middle-income countries is either falsified or substandard.
In more developed countries, the sale of counterfeit erectile dysfunction drugs to men costs these customers their hard-earned money and perhaps a bit of embarrassment at being unable to perform sexually. However, in developing countries, the falsification of medical products is often a matter that can have life-or-death consequences.
Among the most widely falsified and substandard medical products are antibiotics and antimalarial medications, according to WHO. These are the counterfeit drugs that show up most often in developing countries where their use can have fatal consequences in patients battling serious infections with what are essentially worthless medications.
What These Fake Drugs Contain
Counterfeit drugs sometimes contain at least traces of the authentic drug’s active ingredient. In other cases, the fakes leave out the active ingredient altogether. However, in those that do contain some of this key ingredient, it often is too little to be effective or so much that it could threaten the user’s health.
Counterfeiters are particularly creative in their choice of inactive ingredients, those that are used as filler or coloring agents in prescription medications. Printers’ ink has been used in some fake drugs as a coloring agent, while ersatz filler materials have included drywall fiber, corn starch, potato starch, and chalk.
Counterfeit Medications Were A Problem in Ancient Egypt
Counterfeit drugs have been a problem for millennia, according to the World Health Organization. In the executive summary of its 2017 Global Surveillance and Monitoring System report, WHO notes that the “falsification of products that are believed to cure illness is nearly as old as commerce itself.” As evidence, the report recounts the dilemma of Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut who in 1500 B.C. sent out an expedition in search of genuine medicinal herbs. Her motivation: The market was awash in worthless fakes.
It is also reliably reported that Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides wrote extensively in his “De Materia Medica” about his personal detection of counterfeit herbal remedies. Active in the first century after Christ, the good doctor was a man of many talents, serving also as a botanist and pharmacologist.
What Fueled the Dark Web’s Rise?
Helping to drive the growth of counterfeit drug markets on the dark web has been the concerted crackdown on fake drug sales on the open web. A late 2017 article posted at Newsweek.com cites a joint report from Europol and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. The report said a crackdown on 20,000-plus rogue websites on the open web has forced the purveyors of fake drugs to take their business underground.
Even on the dark web, the sites that serve as popular clearinghouses for the trafficking in fake and illegal drugs have a decidedly short lifespan. As authorities become aware of what’s being sold on a particular site and prepare to take action, traffickers pull up stakes and move their business to yet another site, according to the Newsweek article.
Newsweek staff writer Anthony Cuthbertson says the Europol-EMCDDA report estimated that roughly $200 million in drugs were sold over the dark web between 2011 and 2015. Most of this business was transacted on sites like AlphaBay and Hansa, which have since been closed down while the business has moved to newly created websites.
Pirate Radio Stations Tout Fake Drugs
Chinese authorities have cracked down on pirate radio stations and text message marketing actively promoting erectile dysfunction drugs, most of which are of dubious origin, among other things. A report posted at SixthTone.com told of a 2017 crackdown on illegal broadcasters in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing.
According to the report, first carried in the pages of the Chongqing Economic Times, authorities closed down 271 illegal broadcasters and base stations in 2017. These broadcasts consisted largely of commercials for ED drugs, as well as for health clinics targeting the elderly.
Setting up these pirate radio stations required little in the way of equipment according to the report. Anybody with a computer, flash drive, timer switch, and transmitter could set up such a station, according to the report. For a base station, all that’s needed is a device that can detect the presence of nearby smartphones and send out text messages. Authorities reportedly found one such base station operating out of a taxi.
For the Real Article
If you’re in the market for Viagra or one of the other popular PDE5 inhibitors, you can safely order these drugs from a reliable online facilitator such as eDrugstore.com. In business since the late 1990s, eDrugstore deals only in FDA-approved medications, all of which are sourced exclusively from licensed U.S. pharmacies. To buy any of these drugs, you’ll need a prescription. If you have one from your doctor, you can fax it or scan and email it to eDrugstore along with your order.
Alternatively, eDrugstore can arrange a complimentary online consultation with one of its team of licensed U.S. physicians. You’ll be asked to fill out a questionnaire covering your current symptoms of impotence and medical history, and also including a list of the medications — prescription or over-the-counter — you are taking. If eDrugstore’s doctor finds that you are an appropriate candidate for the drug, a prescription will be authorized. To learn more, click below to visit eDrugstore’s Male Impotence page.
We specialize in providing our over 1,000,000 customers with relevant product and condition information created by our professional editorial staff which includes our team of medical writers, medical practitioners, and health educators. eDrugStore.com Staff on Facebook