Erectile dysfunction drugs sold as herbal medicine

An Auckland pharmacist who illegally sold erectile dysfunction drugs as "herbal medicine" has been jailed.

Fadi Iskander, 32, was today sentenced to four months and two weeks in prison for a series of breaches of the Medicines Act related to the sales of the unapproved prescription medicines.

Iskander was convicted and sentenced at the Auckland District court on 47 of 49 charges laid by the Ministry of Health.

The charges related to a "wide variety" of breaches of the Medicines Act relating to offences prior to 2010, when Iskander operated a website selling the drugs for the treatment of male sexual dysfunction, according to the Ministry of Health.

He was also found to have possessed medicines at two addresses without having a reasonable excuse to do so.

The products he advertised and sold were manufactured without approval and represented as herbal, despite containing the prescription medicines Vardenafil and Phentolamine as active ingredients.

Iskander ran the business separately from a pharmacy which went into receivership in February 2010. The Pharmacy Council has suspended Iskander's pharmacy practising certificate.

The Medicines Act 1981 sets out the framework protecting the public from misuse of medicines by limiting prescription medicines to supply only on the authority of a healthcare professional (such as a medical practitioner).

- Fairfax NZ News

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Erectile dysfunction drugs sold as herbal medicine