The Sunday News
PHARMACIES in the country are reportedly defying a Government directive banning the sale of sex steroids which have severe effects on users, Sunday News can reveal.
Medicine Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ), the country’s sole medicine approver, banned the sale of male sexual performance enhancers late last year, citing that the medicines contained dangerous chemicals.
Investigations carried out by this paper reveal that many pharmacies in the city are selling the steroids through the back door. The medicines are not displayed on the counter but when one needs them, they can still buy the steroids from the pharmacists.
Male sexual performance enhancers that are still being sold include Wild Horse, Niagra, Ciagra, OTO Chao Simengnan, Super Powerful Man, Rock Hard Weekend, M-energex and Power One. They cost at least $5.
“As you can see, the medicine is not sold over the counter. People still want the medicine and we cannot resist that,” said a local pharmacist.
“We go with the flow and when people want the medicine we offer them but we cannot sell it over the counter because they were banned.”
Another pharmacist said the Government will have a torrid time banning the medicines because many people use them hence demand remains high.
“The medicine is on demand,” said an official from QV Pharmacy. “The medicine was banned and we are no longer selling it because we are afraid of being sued. These steroids were imported during the hyper inflation era and some pharmacies are still selling them.”
MCAZ spokesperson, Mr Richard Rukwata, said pharmacies are violating the law and are putting people’s lives in danger.
Mr Rukwata said one of the effects of these medicines is that when a person starts to use them, there is high probability of the person becoming a slave to them.
“We are not approving, and have not approved any substances that fall within this category of substances,” he said.
“The products were presented to the authority for determination of registrability as nutritional supplements with vague statements such as increasing stamina, without any overt claims for increasing libido and yet they were subsequently marketed as libido enhancing agents.
“The supplements claimed 100 percent herbal content yet evidence from the USA and Australia indicate that the majority of them contained undeclared phosphodiesterase 5(PDE5) inhibitors (sildenafil, tadalafil, verdalafil) or their analogues.”
Phosphodiesterase is an active ingredient in the drug which the regulatory authority says should be registered.
“People should not just sell these sex steroids. It must be proven by us that the medicine is not harmful to people and if these drugs contain phosphodiesterase, it should be regulated where scientific evidence should be presented,” said Mr Rukwata.
“We do not want a situation whereby people claim that these drugs contain phosphodiesterase yet it contains some dangerous ingredient that harm people.”
The country is continually witnessing the flooding of illegal drugs that are being imported from South Africa and Zambia. Recently Sunday News unearthed the flooding of the latest generation of anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs from neighbouring countries.
