WANG BINGQI HAS made impotence his business. He heads a pharmaceutical company, Golong International, which produces the Chinese equivalent of Viagra. The company, based in Shanxi province, also specialises in drugs for asthma and respiratory diseases.
Golong initially planned to list on the Growth Enterprise Market but had second thoughts, citing volatility as the reason. Mr Wang is Golong's chairman and is a traditional medicine practitioner.
Q: What is Joygra?
A: Joygra is a drug that can treat male erectile dysfunction. It is one of two prescription drugs approved by the State Drug Administration (SDA) of China to treat male impotence. The other one is Viagra.
Q: Joygra sounds a lot like Viagra. Pfizer, which makes Viagra, has had to deal with a wave of mainland copycats. Will the United States giant be suing Golong for producing Joygra?
A: No. Although we have a similar function, Joygra is not an imitation of Viagra and it is not modelled on Viagra's formula. The main ingredient of Joygra is phentolamine mesylate, which was originally used for the treatment of hypertension. Viagra uses sildenafil citrate.