{"id":299011,"date":"2026-02-15T07:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299011\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T07:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:24:21","slug":"warning-over-popular-uk-medication-with-20-million-pills-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299011\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning over popular UK medication with 20 million pills ‘dangerous’"},"content":{"rendered":"

20 million dodgy little pills have been seized by the regulator in the last five years.\"Warning<\/p>\n

Warning over popular UK medication with 20 million pills ‘dangerous’<\/p>\n

A warning has been issued over Viagra pills – after 20 million “dangerous” tablets and knock-off pills were seized<\/a>. 20 million dodgy little blue pills have been seized by the regulator in the last five years.<\/p>\n

That is equivalent to one dose for every three in four men. The \u201cstigma and embarrassment\u201d of erectile dysfunction is being \u201cexploited by criminals\u201d, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).<\/a><\/p>\n

Andy Morling, head of the MHRA\u2019s criminal enforcement unit, said: \u201cStigma and embarrassment are being exploited by criminals selling fake medicines that can seriously harm your health.<\/p>\n

READ MORE Council tax error leaves 400,000 people overpaying and owed refund<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese seizures show the sheer scale of the illegal market for erectile dysfunction medicines in the UK \u2013 and the risks people are taking without realising.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny medicine not authorised for sale in the UK can be unsafe or ineffective and there is no way of knowing what is in them or the negative health effects they can have.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese pills may look genuine, but many are potentially dangerous. These products may contain no active ingredient, the wrong dose, hidden drugs or toxic ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: \u201cWe would strongly advise against patients buying any prescription medication, including treatments for erectile dysfunction, from unregulated online sources.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, they do not know what they are buying \u2013 or how it may interact with any other medication they are taking \u2013 and this can be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny medicine not authorised for sale in the UK can be unsafe or ineffective and there is no way of knowing what is in them or the negative health effects they can have,\u201d Morling said. \u201cThese pills may look genuine but many are potentially dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m incredibly pleased we\u2019ve taken almost 20m doses of unauthorised erectile dysfunction medicines off the streets, including 4.4m last year alone, in what was a record-breaking year of total seizures for the MHRA.<\/p>\n

“Each and every one of those products was potentially dangerous to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"20 million dodgy little pills have been seized by the regulator in the last five years. Warning over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[103,61,60,371,782],"class_list":["post-299011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-medication","tag-nhs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}