Pharmacist charged in fake Viagra scam
SIX-MONTH INVESTIGATION ‘ They’re the same colour, they’re the same shape’
A Richmond Hill, Ont., pharmacist faces criminal charges following an RCMP raid on two of his pharmacies that uncovered allegedly phony Viagra tablets.
The Mounties executed the search warrants after a sixmonth investigation stemming from the discovery by Canada Border Services Agency officials of two shipments containing counterfeit Viagra tablets bound for Richmond Hill.
Both containers, which held tablets designed to mimic legitimate Viagra tablets as well as a powdered form of the impotence drug, originated in India, RCMP spokeswoman Constable Judy Laurence said.
Though the tablets contained portions of the drug’s active ingredient, sildenafil citrate, the dose was significantly less than tablets manufactured by the drug’s patent-holder, Pfizer, which tested the products seized during the RCMP raids, police said.
“ They look like legitimate Viagra tablets to the naked eye,” said Const. Laurence.
“ They’re the same colour, same shape, they’ve got the Viagra and the Pfizer label on them.”
But with such counterfeit drugs, “you have a product that has not been approved based on safety, efficacy and quality, so you don’t know if one medication contains the same amount as the next one, you’re unaware as to whether or not the quality is there,” said Jirina Vlk, a Health Canada spokeswoman.
Viagra retails for $11 per 50milligram tablet and $12.50 per 100-milligram tablet, said Const. Laurence, who added that counterfeiting is “usually profitdriven.”
Facing 11 criminal, customs and Food and Drugs Act charges for allegedly selling and distributing the counterfeit drug is 37- year- old Andrew Sommerhalder, of Richmond Hill.
The RCMP alleges that Mr. Sommerhalder used his two pharmacies to sell counterfeit drugs, which he is also said to have distributed through the Internet.
Since the RCMP raids on two of the man’s pharmacies, one — Direct Compounding Ltd. — has been shut down by the Ontario College of Pharmacists; the other, Optimum Compounding Pharmacy Ltd., has been barred by the College from selling erectile dysfunction drugs.
The two pharmacies, both in Richmond Hill, a suburb north of Toronto, face the same charges as Mr. Sommerhalder.
The College’s discipline committee is now probing the counterfeiting allegations.
The bust is the second time the RCMP has discovered allegedly counterfeit drugs being sold by a legitimate pharmacy.
In June, RCMP officers seized an unspecified amount of pills similar in appearance to the heart medication Norvasc, another Pfizer- produced drug, from King West Pharmacy in Hamilton.
Abadir Nasr, 28, of Mississauga, was charged this month by the RCMP with passing off wares other than those ordered, fraud under $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.
The substitution of what are said to be counterfeit pills at the pharmacy could have played a role in the deaths of five people, cases that remain under investigation by the coroner.
Court documents allege the pharmacy was dispensing counterfeit Norvasc pills made largely of talcum powder.
Mr. Sommerhalder is to appear in a Newmarket, Ont., court on Oct. 13.