Healthy Man – Cheap Viagra?

Maybe you’ve heard this recent national radio ad for Healthy Man, featuring a fellow who wants to sell you some Viagra. It starts: “Why pay U.S. pharmacy prices of $15 per pill or more when you can get Viagra for less than $3 a pill?”

Why indeed. That’d be selling yourself short at a time when length matters. But here’s why this deal is in fact not what it purports to be: Healthy Man is not selling Viagra, the prescription drug approved by the FDA to treat erectile dysfunction. No, what Healthy Man is actually selling is a so-called “generic” version of the drug, though the FDA has yet to approve such an alternative to the brand name. That is to say, Healthy Man’s “Viagra” has not been proven safe and effective like Viagra’s Viagra.

But there are more reasons why you should think long and hard before calling the number at the end of this radio ad. Other red flags include:

• An admission on Healthy Man’s website that its form of Viagra is not FDA-approved (though the confession muddles the difference between generic and brand name, referring to Viagra as a generic drug);
• A A method of tricking consumers into handing over their personal information by posing as a legitimate entity. warning that TINA.org received prior to visiting newhealthyman.com;
• The fact that Healthy Man lists its place of business in Panama City, Panama, when it’s illegal to import drugs into the U.S.

This is not the first time our ears have been tuned to a Healthy Man radio ad. TINA.org first alerted readers to a similar radio ad from the same guys two years ago. The only noticeable thing that has changed is the number.

This article was originally published 7/2/2013.