Published Mar 15, 2026 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Mar 15, 2026 | 7:00 AM
Puvvada Lakshmana was reportedly found to have procured Sildenafil without a licence.
Synopsis: Officials termed the accused, Puvvada Lakshmana, a habitual offender. His previous act had been dealing in Alprazolam, a powerful sedative that sits close to the narcotic category. It earned him seven months in jail. After serving the jail term, he started peddling Sildenafil, popularly known as Viagra.
The parcel looked ordinary, just another package moving through a logistics depot in Hayathnagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad. But when officials from the Drugs Control Administration opened it on 13 March, they found 7,300 tablets of Sildenafil, popularly known as Viagra, shipped in from Kanpur without a single invoice, licence, or paper trail.
The officials picked up a man, allegedly responsible for the consignment, and learnt that it was not his first.
Officials termed the accused, Puvvada Lakshmana, a habitual offender. His previous act had been dealing in Alprazolam, a powerful sedative that sits close to the narcotic category. It earned him seven months in jail.
He was released. And almost immediately, he was back.
This time, the product was different. Instead of sedatives, he was moving Sildenafil, brand name “Dr Josh”, 100 mg tablets, manufactured in Himachal Pradesh, shipped from Uttar Pradesh, and destined for customers across Telangana.
The business model, according to a Drug Inspector, was almost elegant in its simplicity.
He delivered them to those hesitant to visit a medical shop for this tablet,” the Inspector explained to South First. “He would directly reach such customers and deliver the drug to their homes.”
In other words, Lakshmana had identified a market built entirely on embarrassment. Men who wanted the drug but couldn’t bring themselves to stand at a chemist’s counter and ask for it. He would come to them instead.
Here is where the story takes a darker turn.
The 7,300 tablets, worth ₹2.7 lakh, have been sent to a laboratory for analysis. And until those results come back, nobody can say with certainty what those tablets actually contain.
The Drug Inspector was careful. “It could be spurious or standard. We cannot confirm now.”
Spurious meant the tablet could contain no active ingredient. In previous raids, the DCA has seized drugs that were nothing more than chalk powder pressed into a pill shape.
“If it is spurious,” said Dr Mohammad Jahangir, Assistant Professor of Urology at Osmania Medical College, “the patient obviously will not get the expected effect. However, some people may still develop poisoning-type symptoms.”
But the opposite would be equally dangerous. If substandard and not fake, the consequences could be severe if taken in incorrect dosage. Sildenafil is a powerful vasodilator. It drops blood pressure. If a tablet contained significantly more than the labelled 100 mg, a man with hypertension could find his pressure crashing well below 80. Dizziness. A fall. Shock. A syncopal attack.
“Every drug should be plus or minus 10 percent of the labelled strength,” the drug inspector explained. “If it is beyond or lower than that, it will be treated as a not of standard quality drug.”
Originally, Sildenafil was not a drug for erectile dysfunction. It was developed for heart conditions, still used in children with pulmonary arterial hypertension. The erectile dysfunction application came later, almost accidentally, and turned it into one of the most recognised pills in the world.
But that recognition came with a dangerous casualness. Men self-medicate. They start on 25 mg, move to 50 mg, then 100 mg. When 100 mg no longer produced the desired effect, some went for 200 mg, 300 mg, or even 400 mg, before landing in a hospital.
Dr Jahangir has seen the progression. “Eventually they may end up in hospital with priapism, hypotension, blue vision, blurred vision, or even vision loss,” he said.
Priapism needs explanation, because it is the complication that most men least expect. It is a prolonged, painful erection lasting more than four hours, not a side effect that resolves on its own, but a medical emergency.
“The patient has to come to the hospital,” Dr Jahangir said, “and the urologist will have to drain blood from the penis to relieve the condition.”
The drug is also absolutely contraindicated in certain patients, those who have had a recent heart attack or stroke, those on nitrates, those with unstable angina or retinal disorders.
In cardiac patients, it is not to be taken without the supervision of a cardiologist. If taken alongside antihypertensive medication, a man’s blood pressure can drop.
None of these warnings appeared on the parcel delivered to the doorstep by a man with no medical licence.
There is a reason this black market exists. It is not just greed.
Erectile dysfunction, a condition linked to sex, carries a stigma that keeps men away from doctors. They search for the drug quietly, find someone willing to sell without a prescription, and tell themselves it is fine. It is just a pill, everyone takes it, what could go wrong?
What could go wrong is the full list above.
Newer drugs, Tadalafil and Avanafil, carry a lower side-effect profile than Sildenafil and are considered safer in certain patients. Tadalafil, in particular, has a longer duration of action. But accessing them safely means doing the one thing the embarrassment economy is built to avoid: talking to a doctor.
Lakshmana faces action under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. If the tablets are found to be of standard quality, the charge is Section 18(c) for operating without a licence. If substandard or spurious, the sections and the consequences are more serious. The Act provides for imprisonment of up to five years.
As for the 7,300 tablets seized, the lab will eventually say what they are. Whether they are Sildenafil, or something else entirely, or nothing at all.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
