Thousands of pills of a potentially fatal experimental sex drug are being
sold in German clubs.
The beige-coloured pills were stolen from the Bayer drug company.
Experts say they could kill when taken in combination with other drugs like
Ecstasy or amyl nitrate, known as poppers.
The experimental pills contain Vardenafil, which Bayer is hoping to launch
as a
rival Viagra. It has not been fully tested so the pills aren’t safe to take.
Bayer spokesman Roland Ellmann confirms the company knows of the pills being
taken at clubs. “We are now checking to see where the security holes are,”
he
said.
The police are investigating the theft of the tablets and checking safety
standards at the Bayer facility in Leverkusen near Cologne.
The Vardenafil pills were expected to be launched in Germany some time next
year.
Impotency expert Professor Hartmut Porst told German newspaper Bild:
“Vardenafil
can be dangerous. If the pills are taken with Ecstasy or poppers
they could lead to sudden heart failure.”
The paper claims it discovered that two workers at the firm had smuggled at
least 500 pills out of the company’s laboratory in Leverkusen every day.
In a statement a Bayer spokesman said: “The experimental product was being
dealt
with under the recognised pharmaceutical security regulations. In order to
get
around these the perpetrator or perpetrators must have worked with criminal
energy.”
*Drug abuse story sent by Ananova
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