FDA Slams Chinese Company for Allegedly Selling Viagra and Cialis Infused E-Liquid
The US Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning to Chinese e-liquid company HelloCig for selling and advertising products allegedly infused with erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra and Cialis.
The offending company, HelloCig Electronic Technology Co. Ltd, reportedly advertised and e-liquids like “E-Cialis HelloCig E-Liquid” alongside a bottle of Cialis pills and claimed that its products were FDA approved. It also sold an e-liquid with the brand of an anti-obesity drug that was pulled from the market in Europe for causing psychiatric disorders. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the FDA’s test showed that the e-liquid actually contained the same active compound found in the erectile drug Viagra. So it makes sense that the FDA slapped HelloCig with a cease and desist order, and threatened “civil money penalties, criminal prosecution, seizure, and/or injunction” if it didn’t pull these controversial products off the market.
“There are no e-liquid products approved to contain prescription drugs or any other medications that require a doctor’s supervision,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gotlieb said in a statement. “Prescription drugs are carefully evaluated and labelled to reflect the risks of the medications and their potential interactions with other medicines, and vaping active drug ingredients is an ineffective route of delivery and can be dangerous.”
It’s rare that I agree with anything Scott Gotlieb says in relation to vaping, but this is one of those rare times. Supplement-infused e-liquids were bad enough, but now we-re on to erectile dysfunction drugs? What’s next? Opioids? Honestly, in a time when the FDA and other vaping opponents are looking for any reason to put us in a bad light, this is probably the stupidest thing anyone could do. And yet, here we are.
In a statement to USA Today, HelloCig said that it is currently working with the FDA, and has stopped both the advertising and sales of its offending e-liquids. At the time of this writing both the Cialis and Viagra e-liquids were no longer available on the company’s website, and neither was the “E-Rimonabant HelloCig E-Liquid”, the one allegedly infused with the anti-obesity drug Acomplia, but that tests showed contained undeclared sildenafil – the medicine in Viagra.
HelloCig is based in “the beautiful city of China” but sales its products in the United States. It currently offers over 150 different e-liquids, including ‘healthcare’ flavors and ‘herbs’ flavors. Let’s just say that if this scandal somehow puts them out of business, I for one will not miss them.
