The medicines – which included several hundred fake doses of Pfizer’s Viagra (sildenafil citrate) – were seized during two routine vehicle checks at the Diepoldsau border crossing in the Canton of St. Gallen last month.
On November 13, border officials found 1,800 boxes of erectile dysfunction products in the luggage of a coach driver whose journey began in Serbia.
Three days later they seized another 1,200 units that were hidden in a vehicle also coming to the country from Serbia.
Analysis of the products – which included gel pouches along with pills – revealed they were fakes that contained very little active pharmaceutical ingredient (API).
Indian origin
Swissmedic spokeswoman Danièle Bersier told us “Finished products were seized” adding that this included “tablets and oral gels.”
“The gel pouches were imitations manufactured in India. Regarding the counterfeit tablets, we do not know where they had been manufactured.”
Bersier also said that the seized products “were destined for use in Switzerland.”
Swiss authorities have confirmed the counterfeit products have been destroyed and that legal proceedings have been started against the two importers.