KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) —Sellers of a fake version of the impotence drug Viagra must pay $167,500 in fines and give refunds to anyone who bought it, the Missouri attorney general said Monday.
“The people marketing this supposed impotence cure were trying to cash in on the high demand for the real thing, Viagra,” Jay Nixon said.
It was unclear if the knockoff version, called Vaegra or Urophil, works like the real thing.
The drug was advertised through the mail and sold under the company name American Urological Clinic. A 75-day supply was offered for $83.95 through a Kansas City mailing address and a toll-free telephone number set up in Georgia.
Two companies are behind American Urological Clinic; the Institute of Sexual Research Inc. and the Old Well Corp., Nixon said.
American Urological Clinic also is under a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge in Atlanta for using the name Vaegra. After that order was issued May 1, the companies changed the drug name to Urophil, Nixon said.
Viagra, developed by Pfizer Inc., went on the market after receiving Federal Drug Administration approval on March 27. In the first three weeks of sales, pharmacists filled an estimated 150,000 prescriptions nationwide. The Viagra pills cost about $8 each.