When Ma Xiang registered a Website to sell fake Viagra and its chemical components, little did he realize that his largest order would be his undoing - the order being placed by the drug's real producer.

Ma has been charged with selling fake and inferior medicines by the Pudong New Area Prosecutor's Office. The 30-year-old faces a fine of between 50 to 200 percent of his turnover and a two-year jail term, prosecutors said yesterday.

In October 2002, Ma met a man named Jiang, so-called director of a chemical industrial plant in Liyang, Jiangsu Province. Jiang told him his factory could produce Cialis, a new sex-health medicine for erectile dysfunction.

Ma agreed to act as Jiang's sales agent, prosecutors said.

To make the business convincing, Ma registered a Website titled "Beijing Angle Medical and Pharmaceutical Technology Co" in November 2002, in which he claimed he was the company's agent and left his mobile phone number.

He not only sold Cialis, but also "Viagra and its chemical compo-nents," supplied by Jiang, at a price no cheaper than the genuine drug, prosecutors said. But those products were found to be fake or substandard later.

Ma posted the products, even overseas, after payment was remitted into his bank account.

In April 2003, Ma secured his largest deal, comprising 10,000 Viagra pills, 20 kilograms of its chemical components and five kilograms of Cialis, from a man identifying himself as "Esson," who accepted the 270,000-yuan (US$32,530) charge.

Ma was caught on April 21 by local police when dealing with Esson, who was actually the Chinese market investigator for Pfizer Inc, Viagra's patented producer in the United States.

Pfizer had been keeping an eye on Ma's activities after a batch of fake Viagra, bearing the name of Ma's firm, was confiscated early this year at the Alaska Customs.

Ma's trial date is yet to be set, prosecutors said, adding Jiang is now in Jiangsu police custody.

(Shanghai Daily   November 5, 2003)