{"id":2444,"date":"2015-06-29T15:04:34","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T15:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.viamedic.com\/blog\/?p=2444"},"modified":"2018-11-21T00:08:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T00:08:11","slug":"viagra-007-raises-fda-red-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/erectile-dysfunction\/viagra\/viagra-007-raises-fda-red-flags\/","title":{"rendered":"Viagra 007 Raises FDA Red Flags"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>he Food and Drug Administration is kept busy trying to police dietary supplements that are not what they’re purported to be. Supplements touted as erectile dysfunction remedies are particularly plentiful.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Viagra 007 is a cleverly named dietary supplement being aggressively marketed as a less expensive alternative to Viagra, the popular impotence medication. That it might produce positive results for some of its users probably should not come as much of a surprise since it turns out that one of its undeclared ingredients is sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in the little blue pill that revolutionized the treatment of erection problems.<\/p>\n

You might ask, So what\u2019s the big deal? Well, the folks at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration think it\u2019s a very big deal indeed. So much so that as far back as April 2015 the agency issued a medication health fraud alert, advising consumers not to buy or use Viagra 007. The FDA indicated that the secret ingredient had been discovered by FDA during an examination of international mail shipments.<\/p>\n

Supplement Could Endanger Some<\/h3>\n

Some of the men most likely to be attracted to Viagra alternatives might well be those who should not be taking sildenafil or any of its closely related PDE5 inhibitor cousins because of pre-existing medical conditions or the danger of drug interactions.<\/p>\n

With no mention of sildenafil on Viagra 007\u2019s product label, unsuspecting consumers could very well buy the supplement thinking they are buying a product that can help them recover erectile function without exposing them to the dangers the PDE5 inhibitors can cause.<\/p>\n

For example, men who take nitrate-based drugs to help relieve the chest pain of angina pectoris are instructed to avoid Viagra and all other PDE5 inhibitors because both nitrates and PDE5 inhibitors sharply lower blood pressure. Taken together, they could cause such a precipitous decline in blood pressure as to be life threatening.<\/p>\n

Other Users of Nitrates<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Nitrate-based drugs such as nitroglycerin can interact dangerously with PDE5 inhibitors.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although angina patients are perhaps the single largest group of health consumers routinely using nitrates, patients with high blood pressure, diabetes, elevated blood cholesterol levels, and heart disease may also take nitrates. Recreational drugs known as \u201cpoppers\u201d also contain high levels of nitrates and thus should never be used at the same time as PDE5 inhibitors, such as Viagra.<\/p>\n

In a statement accompanying its warning about Viagra 007, the FDA noted that the dietary supplement is yet another example of \u201ca growing trend of dietary supplements or conventional foods with hidden drugs and chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The watchdog agency went on to say that these products are generally promoted as \u201call natural\u201d and are specifically targeted at consumers interested in body building, weight loss, and\/or sexual enhancement.<\/p>\n

Supplement from China<\/h3>\n

Viagra 007 is manufactured and marketed by Guangzhou Way Well Health Products Ltd. of China. In its online promotional materials for the product<\/a>, the company acknowledges that despite its great popularity, the drug Viagra isn\u2019t a viable option for men \u201cwith certain cardiovascular problems\u201d and may also be avoided by others wary of its side effects.<\/p>\n

The Chinese company\u2019s promotional literature then goes on to tout Viagra 007 as an alternative that \u201ccontains a proprietary formula designed to improve the quality of men\u2019s erections.\u201d It also notes that Viagra 007 pills contain \u201cproven high expansion vasodilators that can promote healthy erectile function.\u201d However, while touting Viagra 007 as a safe alternative to the real thing, nowhere does its manufacturer disclose that one of those vasodilators is sildenafil, Viagra\u2019s active ingredient.<\/p>\n

One online advertisement for Viagra 007 listed its main ingredients as follows: crocuses, aweto, snow lotus, Tibetan yak testicles, seahorse, velvet, and ginseng. According to Merriam-Webster.com, aweto is \u201cthe mummified body of a caterpillar killed by the attack of a parasitic ascomycetous fungus (Cordyceps robustus<\/i>) together with the elongated fruiting body of the fungus which projects from the neck of the mummy.\u201d Sound like something you\u2019d like to put in your body? I thought not.<\/p>\n

Similar Warning in 2014<\/h3>\n

The FDA warning about Viagra 007 came almost a year after a similar alert in June 2014. In that case, the federal agency warned consumers to steer clear of a dietary supplement with the provocative name of Dick\u2019s Hard Up. Like Viagra 007, Dick\u2019s Hard Up was at the time being promoted for its powers of \u201cmale enhancement.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that case, FDA announced that the dietary supplement contained undeclared and unspecified quantities of tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis, another of the popular PDE5 inhibitors sold primarily to allow impotent men to temporarily recover erectile function. FDA\u2019s warning to consumers was based on the same grounds as its alert in the Viagra 007 case, namely that Dick\u2019s Hard Up could potentially harm consumers unaware that the supplement contained the active compound of a PDE5 inhibiting drug.<\/p>\n

Viagra 007 Still Available<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Check FDA’s website regularly for warnings of potentially hazardous dietary supplements.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A cursory Internet check for both Viagra 007 and Dick\u2019s Hard Up indicates plenty of web offers for the former and little or nothing about the latter, which FDA warned against in June 2014. Hopefully, the agency\u2019s alert about Dick\u2019s Hard Up helped to dry up whatever market might have existed for the product, but at least for now (November 2018), Viagra 007 is still available to consumers, including through eBay.<\/p>\n

While both these cases attracted widespread attention and publicity, FDA posts scores of such alerts annually just in the lone category of Tainted Sexual Enhancement Products<\/a>, which is only one segment of the vast dietary supplements market. It also does its very best to police other segments of the dietary supplement market as well.<\/p>\n

Many Supplements Go Untested<\/h3>\n

But, as the agency itself points out, it can\u2019t test every product on the market that might potentially contain harmful hidden ingredients. \u201cEnforcement actions and consumer advisories for tainted products only cover a small fraction of the tainted over-the-counter products on the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

With federal budgets for most agencies shrinking, FDA and other government agencies must make do with less. For that reason, FDA has established a mechanism that allows consumers and others to call the agency\u2019s attention to dietary supplements of questionable value. Obviously, the average consumer has no way of testing a product\u2019s ingredients to see what, if any, undeclared substances might have been used in producing the supplement.<\/p>\n

But all consumers have ways of recognizing when something just isn\u2019t right about a product they are using. Does the product produce side effects that are extremely unpleasant and that somehow escaped mention in the product\u2019s informational label or accompanying literature? Does the product fail to deliver on its primary promise? As in weight loss supplements that fail to help you shed pounds or an \u201call-natural\u201d PDE5 inhibitor alternative that does nothing to help you get and keep an erection?<\/p>\n

Importance of Alerting FDA<\/h3>\n

Notifying the FDA of such defects in product quality or safety won\u2019t get you back the money you spent to buy the product, but it could help keep others from falling victim to the same scam, if indeed the product is a scam. If you have genuine concerns about a dietary supplement\u2019s quality and\/or safety, you can visit the government\u2019s Safety Reporting Portal and report the issue.<\/p>\n

While this article concerns itself specifically with dietary supplements, particularly those that claim to help overcome erection problems, the Safety Reporting Portal can be used to advise the FDA of safety concerns about other products as well. Such products include animal foods and drugs, human drug and therapeutic biologics, human foods, and tobacco products.<\/p>\n

At the risk of restating the obvious, buyers who are considering buying a new, highly-touted dietary supplement either online or in a retail shop should first check FDA\u2019s website to see if the agency has had anything to say about the supplement.<\/p>\n

Shop Carefully to Avoid Scams<\/h3>\n

And even if the supplement in question has escaped the agency\u2019s attention up to that point, you might consider confining your purchases to supplements manufactured and marketed by companies that are recognized as reliable suppliers of such products.<\/p>\n

If you do suffer from ED and want to buy a product that can help you regain erectile function, if only temporarily, it’s probably best to go with Viagra, Cialis, or one of the other brand-name PDE5 inhibitors or a generic equivalent, where available. If you’d like to order such drugs online, consider taking your business to a longtime online facilitator such as eDrugstore.com, in business since the late 1990s. To learn more, visit its Erectile Dysfunction page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Don Amerman<\/i><\/a> is a freelance author who writes extensively about a wide array of nutrition and health-related topics. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Food and Drug Administration is kept busy trying to police dietary supplements that are not what they’re purported to be. Supplements touted as erectile dysfunction remedies are particularly plentiful. Viagra 007 is a cleverly named dietary supplement being aggressively marketed as a less expensive alternative to Viagra, the popular impotence medication. That it might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viagra"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t