Hong Kong businessmen and travellers are smuggling Viagra into the mainland, where some sell it to friends for as much as four times the price in the SAR.
Regulars at Guangzhou's trendiest bars and discos said their Hong Kong friends were sneaking the anti-impotence pills through immigration checkpoints. They either gave them to friends as gifts or sold them.
'Most people bring it back for friends, but some people sell it on a small scale for $200 to $300 a pill,' said Kwan Ying, a 28-year-old man visiting a popular club.
'A friend of mine tried to sell it to me for $400. I didn't buy it because I don't need it.' In Hong Kong, a pharmacist said Viagra had become a popular gift apart from wine and cigarettes for mainlanders.
The pharmacist, who runs a dispensary in Central, said he had many customers asking for Viagra to take as gifts to friends and mainland business partners.
'Before the drug was registered here, they kept asking me if they could get some supplies,' he said.