Dutch institute: sell Viagra over the counter

Erection pills like Viagra should be made available over the counter, according to the Dutch Institute for Responsible Medicine Use IVM. The drugs should be taken out of the illegal market, the institute’s director Ruud Coolen told the free sheet .

If people were able to buy what the institute describes as “shame pills” without a prescription at pharmacist’s, they would be less likely to order potentially dangerous medication online.

“Enough is now known about the side-effects of these medicines and the people they are suitable for or not,” Mr Coolen says. “A visit to the doctor is no longer necessary. A pharmacist can judge it perfectly well.”
The IVM argues that erection pills should fall in the same category as strong painkillers and some slimming products, which in the Netherlands are available over the counter at pharmacist’s, but not at drugstores.

Hundreds of thousands of Viagra-type pills a year are ordered online in the Netherlands, a large proportion of which are fake or substandard, Mr Coolen says. Some of the men who take them suffer from erectile dysfunction, while others simply use them recreationally. The IVM is calling on people who have bought illegal erection pills online to report their experiences anonymously on the institute’s website.

It’s hard to predict whether over-the-counter pills like Viagra, Cialis or Levitra would be cheaper than pills bought illegally online, says Mr Coolen. “But next year the patent expires on the active ingredient in Viagra, sildenafil. Then fourteen comparable products will come on the market and the price will drop anyway.”