FDA Bans "Herbal" ED Pills With Lethal Viagra Equivalent; Gloves Off in Fight With Herbal Producers

(MoneyWatch)  The FDA has removed another killer remedy from health food stores -- Stamina-Rx. This product bills itself as a "revolutionary sexual stimulant engineered to increase sexual stamina and arousal," made from yohimbe extract and other herbal products. But it also contained benzamidenafil, an unapproved drug in the same class as Viagra, Levitra and Cialis.

If those drugs are taken by anyone using nitrates to treat high blood pressure the combined effect can be lethal. The FDA said:

Consumers with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease often take nitrates and may be most susceptible to adverse effects from this product.

Consumers who have this product in their possession should stop using it immediately.

The product has been recalled via an FDA-enforced press release. This is the latest in a string of bans and recalls of herbal, diet supplement and "health" remedies conducted by the FDA. The feds yanked the "cold remedy" Zicam after finding that it can permanently disable your sense of smell. That move followed a ban on Hydroxycut, a diet supplement that killed one of its users.

Taken together, the moves are a victory for common sense and a defeat for New-Age quackery. Politically, they signal that the FDA is no longer adopting a laissez faire attitude toward the legal loophole that removes diet supplements from their jurisdiction (see here for an explanation of that).

The big losers in this push will not be consumers looking for herbal remedies. Rather, it will be the giant herbal companies and drug corporations with "nutritional" divisions. Check out the list of member companies that belong to the Council for Responsible Nutrition. Don't see many hippies or mom-and-pop remedy makers, do you? The names include Bayer, Wyeth, Abbott, Dow Chemical, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, alongside Herbalife and Country Life.

• Previously:
• FDA: Zicam Can Permanently Kill Your Sense of Smell
• Why Hydroxycut Had to Kill Someone Before the FDA Could Act