Viagra promotion may fall foul of the law
The makers of the anti-impotence drug Viagra have hired a former actor and talk-show host to promote the medicine, days after a report that a rival pill would soon be available.
But the recruitment of David Lo Tai-wai, 55, may run into trouble from regulators because the advertising of prescription drugs is banned.
Manufacturers Pfizer said Lo - whose nickname 'Wai Goh' (Brother Wai) sounds the same as the Chinese name for Viagra - would appear in posters at private doctors' clinics.
Group product manager Roger Li Long-tin said the company had not decided whether the name Viagra would be mentioned in the posters, but the company's name would appear.
He denied Pfizer was trying to promote the product because of possible competition from a new drug called Uprima, developed by American company TAP Pharmaceuticals.
'This is an educational campaign. We would go ahead with it under whatever circumstances, as we do with our other products,' Mr Li said.
The Undesirable Medical Advertisements Ordinance prohibits 'the promotion of sexual virility, desire or fertility, or the restoration of lost youth'.
People who break the law face a fine of $10,000 for a first offence and $25,000 for a second, as well as one year's jail.
A Health Department spokesman said he did not know whether the campaign would break the law, but officials would follow the case.
