A consumer issues program on CCTV’s online TV station CNTV (China Network Television) ran an expose yesterday on fake erection pills and products made in Haikou and sold in 13 provinces, Guangdong included, sold under more than 40 different product names (五花八门, 黄金肾宝, 虫草藏鞭宝, 参茸补肾金丹, 鹿茸回春丸, to name a few).

A reporter for Yangcheng Evening News (YEN) was quick to hit the streets to check major pharmacies in Guangzhou, finding none of the recreational male enhancement product brands fingered in the CNTV report, following that up with a call to the city’s Food and Drug Administration, which told the reporter that no complaints of such fake products have been received.

The manufacturers of the pills in question advertise their products as consisting of TCM ingredients, a fact which independent tests, YEN reports, have proven to be false. In fact, pills tested for the CNTV report contain a mixture of sildenafil (aka Viagra) and tadalafil, known commercially as Cialis—tempting, except for all the other random unregulated junk thrown in too.

After a tour around Guangzhou, the YEN reporter ends up talking to Li, the operator of an online vendor of male performance products. Li says that many men now choose to purchase their erection enhancers online, partly for the home delivery bonus but also being spared the awkwardness of asking for the goods at a pharmacy sales counter. However, Li says, online marketers of these kinds of products tend to exaggerate their effect and find it easier to move fake pills out of the view of supervisory authorities.

Here’s the original CNTV report: