MOVE TO END VIAGRA BLACK MARKET

BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) - Thailand will authorize the sale of Viagra
next week to end the trafficking and misuse of the anti-impotence pill,
Thai Secretary-General of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Mongkol Na
Songkhla said on Monday.

Mongkol said there was widespread smuggling of genuine and fake Viagra into
Thailand because of misconceptions it was an aphrodisiac but dismissed
reports Thailand was a production center for fake Viagra.

"So in order to end the misuse of the drug and stop the black market, we
will register the drug and educate the people," Mongkol told Reuters.

The FDA, which launched a crackdown on the Viagra black market and
confiscated nearly 200 fake and genuine tablets in the past week, is set to
register a prescription license for Viagra next week. The drug is made by
U.S. firm Pfizer.

"We will give a license to distribute Viagra on August 18, and after that
the company will have to pay for an education project to give information
to the public about the drug before they can distribute under doctor's
prescription," Mongkol said.

"There are some misperceptions over the drug among consumers here," Monkol
said. "People believe Viagra is a sex drug and this misunderstanding has
led to heavy desire for it in the black market."

He said the black market cost of Viagra of about 1,000 baht ($23.80) per
tablet would be cut to 300-400 baht once it was legalized.

Mongol said half of the Viagra distributed illegally in Thailand was fake
but said it did not come from inside the country.

"The reports that Thailand is a center for producing fake Viagra are not
true. We have seized Viagra from the harbors and airports and found that it
is shipped in from other countries," Mongkol said.

A British television broadcast said last month that Thailand was a major
center for producing fake Viagra.

Mongkol said the number of Thai impotence cases had been steady at around
400,000 for the past few years.

Checked-by: Richard Lake