Not for Pfizer, of course:
The tests helped the counterfeiters decide how much genuine Sildenafil they would mix with cornflour, the Sanxiang Metropilis reported.
“Some workers returned home to test it, but for out-of-town workers we would arrange for them to be go to massage parlours and we would give them a reimbursements,” one gang member told the newspaper.
Originally the drugs were made with a ratio of 1:1 of genuine medication and cornflour, but the amount of Sildenafil was increased by 50 per cent after the workers reported back to their bosses with mixed results, the newspaper said.
there’s not exactly going to be a reaction between the two components so this is a useful test, no further medical testing would be necessary.
However, the idea didn’t last long:
“The staff were very happy to test the fake medication at the beginning, but soon became annoyed when the pill-testing became too much hard work, so they wanted to resign,” one gang member was reported to have said.
Given that it’s now out of patent I’m not sure that “gang” is quite the right word. But they are right about this:
“At least we did human testing – so we have not arrived at random conclusions,” he added.
To be honest, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with their process at all. All the complicated stuff was done 20 years ago. Now it really is just working out how much needs to be in each pill.
So what’s the test? Unless you’ve got workers with erectile dysfunction, your other option is that the worker gets a couple of shags and you check the length of the refraction period.
Don’t get this. They’re not marketing their pills as Viagra. So how are they “counterfeiting Viagra”? And if the pills contain Sildenafil, they are fit for the purpose described.
So if the “gang” is breaking Chinese law it’s either manufacturing pills without a permit or misstating content.
But not counterfeiting.
bloke in spain,
The whole story sounds rather fishy to me. Why buy Viagra drugs and go to all the trouble of cutting them with cornflour and reproducing it, instead of just getting someone to download the formula and make it? You’re already breaking the law doing this, why not just make the whole thing and make more money?
I’m very suspicious of “bad copy drugs” stories. I suspect many of planted by drug company PR to keep people from buying good generics.
” but soon became annoyed when the pill-testing became too much hard work”
So to speak.
Obviously when it became too hard they knew they had reached the upper limit for their testing
They should have used Goldilocks patented 3 Bears method for scoring, this ones too soft, this ones too hard and this one is just right.
Actually I would have thought using prostitutes may have led to more subjective feedback than just asking the man how it worked.
The whole point of sildenafil is that it works without the, erm, massage parlour environment.
Though I’m talking about (one of) its licensed uses rather than its recreational use. For the recreational use, now it’s off patent, the cutting of generic wholesale stuff with the kind of stuff you cut other recreational drugs with is going to be vastly cheaper and more profitable than making your own or making outright fakes without active ingredient.