Viagra Corner: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Medicine

ADVERTISING watchdogs have launched a clampdown on companies advertising Viagra or products given a similar name, days before the drug is expected to be licensed in Britain.

A spokesman for the Advertising Standards Authority said: "Viagra has become the most written and talked about medicine for a long time. One inevitable result of this coverage is an advertising bandwagon, with companies clamouring to advertise Viagra or imitations of it."

One advertisement that is under investigation details the alleged virtues of a drug called Vigorex under the headline "Finally available in the UK. The potency pill that swept America".

That advertisement is the subject of an investigation, the spokesman said.

He added: "What we are doing is warning advertisers that if they try to pass off something as Viagra or try to sell it direct despite it not being licensed there will be problems."