Around 19.5 million “illegally traded erectile dysfunction pills” were seized by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) between 2021 and 2025, it revealed today.
That’s a figure “equivalent to a single dose for three in every four adult men in the UK”, the watchdog said, urging the public “not to risk their health by buying unauthorised medicines online”.
“Only use UK-registered pharmacies” it reminded the public, explaining that the credentials of online pharmacies can be checked on the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) website to ensure they are “properly registered”.
Read more: MHRA seized £45m in illegally traded drugs in 2025
According to the MHRA, the seized pills – which were enough to “fill two double-decker buses” – were “illegally sold online” and contained “active ingredients” such as sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil and avanafil.
“Erectile dysfunction medicines remain one of the most frequently seized illegally traded medicines in the UK, with yearly seizures more than doubling since 2022,” the MHRA said.
It urged the public to “avoid buying medicines from social media, messaging apps or unknown websites”.
“Gambling with your health”
“If you buy erectile dysfunction medicines from unregulated websites, social media or messaging apps, you are gambling with your health,” the MHRA warned.
Unlicensed erectile dysfunction medicines can be “especially dangerous” for people with heart disease, high blood pressure or those taking other medications, it explained.
And it added that these illegal medicines can also “raise the risk of heart attack, stroke and dangerously low blood pressure”.
Read more: MHRA busts ‘large-scale’ illegal online Class B drug supply
MHRA head of the criminal enforcement unit Andy Morling said that these seizures show the “sheer scale of the illegal market for erectile dysfunction medicines in the UK” as well as the “risks people are taking without realising”.
“Any medicine not authorised for sale in the UK can be unsafe or ineffective and there is no way of knowing what is in them or the negative health effects they can have,” he continued.
Morling added that while these pills “may look genuine”, many are “potentially dangerous”.
Read more: ‘Illegal or unregulated’: 18k weight loss items seized in 18 months
And health innovation and safety minister Dr Zubir Ahmed said that “as a doctor, my message is simple: speak to your GP or pharmacist”.
“They can offer safe, effective treatments and confidential advice, taking into account your health and any other medicines you take,” he said, adding that “if a medicine isn’t coming from a registered pharmacy, it isn’t safe – and it’s breaking the law”.
Read more: MHRA crack-down seized £40m in illegally traded drugs last year
It comes after the medicines watchdog revealed last month that it seized almost 20 million doses of illegally traded medicines with a “potential street value” of £45m in 2025.
And it announced in November that it had disrupted a “multimillion-pound criminal network” supplying unlicensed medicines – including Class B and Class C drugs – via “a series of websites”.
