Other safety alerts
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| Singapore: HSA Alerts Public to Five Illegal Sexual Enhancement Products Sold Online Found to Contain Potent Chemical Ingredients |
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The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) is alerting members of the public not to purchase or use five illegal sexual enhancement products sold online as these can cause serious adverse reactions. These illegal products were tested at HSA’s pharmaceutical laboratory and found to contain potent chemical ingredients, including the prescription medicine, sildenafil, which is used in the treatment of male impotence. They were detected through HSA’s ongoing surveillance of Internet sales activities. HSA’s investigations show that some consumers in Singapore may have bought the products online. The five products are:
STARKRx PERFORMANCE ENHANCER, Stark-Rx and MAXIMUM STRENGTH SEXUAL ENHANCER: contain sildenafil;
FORTA PLUS for Men: contains nortadalafil; and
STUD 100® Male Genital Desensitizer Spray: contains lignocaine
Three products, ‘STARKRx PERFORMANCE ENHANCER’, ‘MAXIMUM STRENGTH SEXUAL ENHANCER’ and ‘FORTA PLUS for Men’, claimed to contain only natural herbal ingredients. However, they were tested to contain either sildenafil or nortadalafil. Nortadalafil is a chemically-related compound of tadalafil. Sildenafil and tadalafil are prescription medicines used to treat male erectile dysfunction and can potentially cause serious adverse effects such as decreased or loss of vision and hearing, strokes, heart attacks and priapism (painful and exceedingly long erections). If priapism is not treated immediately, it may lead to permanent impotence. Sildenafil and tadalafil are also not suitable for patients with medical conditions such as certain heart-related problems or who are on heart medications such as nitrates. Deaths of patients found to be using sildenafil while on nitrates have been reported overseas.
‘STUD 100® Male Genital Desensitizer Spray’ was found to contain high concentrations of lignocaine exceeding its permissible level in external preparations. Lignocaine is a medicine used to decrease or eliminate the feeling of pain. The inappropriate use of products with high concentrations of lignocaine can cause dizziness and low blood pressure.
Although HSA has yet to receive any adverse reaction reports associated with these products, this does not mean that these products will not cause any harm. Persons taking these products may not link the adverse effects they experienced with the product or share with their doctors that they are taking such a product. Consumers should be aware that illegal health products are generally produced under poor manufacturing conditions with no quality control, and the contents of the product can vary from batch to batch, which can pose serious health hazards.
Please refer to the following website in HSA for details:
http://www.hsa.gov.sg/content/hsa/../hsa-alerts-publictofiveillegalsexualenhancementproductssoldonlin.html
In Hong Kong, STARKRx PERFORMANCE ENHANCER, Stark-Rx, MAXIMUM STRENGTH SEXUAL ENHANCER and FORTA PLUS for Men are not registered pharmaceutical products, while Stud 100 Spray (HK-03640) is a pharmaceutical product registered by Dicken Trading Company (Dicken), and is a pharmacy-only medicine. As the manufacturer’s name is not mentioned in the HSA’s announcement, it cannot be ascertained whether the product in the news is the same as the product registered by Dicken in Hong Kong. In view of the HSA's announcement, DH has made an enquiry to HSA for more details of the incident related to the concerned product and will draw samples of the product from Dicken to test for compliance against its registered specifications. So far, the DH has not received any adverse drug reaction report related to Stud 100 Spray. DH will follow-up with the HSA reply and keep vigilant of the testing results to consider any actions deemed necessary.
Ends/ Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:00
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