Curling hero fined $30,000 in U.S. for fake Viagra sales

A B.C. hero of the Canadian Paralympics team has been fined $30,000 in the U.S. for his part in a father and son scheme smuggling fake Viagra and bogus Cialis into Canada for online and nightclub sales.
Jim Armstrong, 59, was arrested in Blaine, Wash., less than a month after skipping the national Paralympic wheelchair curling team to a gold medal in the 2010 Games.
U.S. Federal Court Judge Ricardo Martinez said Monday he seriously considered sending Armstrong, a retired dentist, to jail.
"You are a trained medical professional," Martinez said in a Seattle courtroom. "You knew better."
Minutes before Martinez slapped Armstrong with the fine — and scheduled a hearing in April at which Armstrong could be ordered to pay up to $44,000 in restitution to drug companies — the judge imposed a jail sentence on Armstrong's son, Gregory, 28, of a year and a day, plus a $5,000 fine.
Armstrong had told an investigating officer Gregory sold the fake erectile-dysfunction drugs in Vancouver-area nightclubs, and court heard Gregory was advertising the pills online.
"Not only [did] you put people at physical risk of harm, you put them at risk of death," Martinez told Gregory.
Drug testing was performed to determine pills seized from Armstrong were fake, but no tests were done to find out what was actually in them.
Martinez said Armstrong was less to blame than his son. Armstrong's lawyer, Richard Hansen, said his client was in "desperate financial straits," and was losing his Richmond home, which court heard was valued at $1.6 million.
"He can hardly buy groceries," Hansen told court, adding that Armstrong "was not profiting" from the scheme and that some packages retrieved from the mailbox contained legitimate goods.
- - - - - -
Last March 20, Armstrong was holding aloft a bouquet of flowers with one hand and raising his gold medal with the other as he sat in his wheelchair on the curling sheet with his Paralympian teammates after winning the final against Korea. His craggy face was beaming.
Armstrong appeared to embody the Paralympic ideal of triumph over adversity. He started curling at age eight, and competed as an able-bodied athlete six times at The Brier, twice as skip. He is the only curler to have won the Ross Harstone Award for Sportsmanship and Ability three times. He was president of the World Curling Players Association from 1997 to 1999. But in 2007 he suffered serious knee and back injuries in a car accident. He could no longer work as a dentist. He couldn't curl. But then he discovered a twist on the sport — and became a wheelchair curler, and a superstar of the sport.
Armstrong's downfall began in April when U.S. Customs agents in Los Angeles intercepted a package mailed from China containing 2,544 tablets labelled "Viagra" and 260 labelled "Cialis." The pills were determined to be counterfeit. The package, addressed to Armstrong's late wife Carleen, had been sent to a box at a Mail Boxes International outlet in Blaine rented under Carleen's name before she died of cancer in September 2009.
U.S. Customs Special Agent Zachary Timko used Federal Express to overnight the box of pills to Special Agent Jim Burkhardt of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who is responsible for Washington state.
An employee at the outlet provided Burkhardt with a list of 22 parcels and boxes delivered to the Armstrongs' box over the previous year. The list showed large numbers of parcels arriving at the box, many from China and India where counterfeit drugs are mass produced. Armstrong and his son Greg both retrieved packages. The employee told Burkhardt she was very familiar with Armstrong, who picked up boxes once a week.
The scheme came crashing down on April 15 when Armstrong, unaware he was under surveillance, entered the mailbox outlet and asked for his packages. He checked the box of counterfeit pills and left the building.
"I confronted James Armstrong outside the store," Burkhardt said in an affidavit to U.S. Western District Court. "I placed Armstrong under arrest. Armstrong informed me that his son Gregory purchased the drugs and distributed [them] at clubs in the Vancouver area."
Ultimately, Armstrong told investigators he had smuggled the bogus drugs on "numerous other occasions . . . on behalf of his son."
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Court heard Monday that the Armstrongs had run their illegal enterprise for about three years. Both pleaded guilty.
Friends of Armstrong, a father of three, submitted letters to U.S. authorities testifying to his good character.
"Throughout the time that I have known Dr. Armstrong, I have been impressed with his honesty, integrity and strong family values," wrote Vancouver lawyer James Schuman. "I have not known Dr. Armstrong to act in any way that was . . . connected with criminality."
Tony Stevens, of the Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunal, wrote that he'd known Armstrong for more than 40 years.
"Jim carries a quiet strength about him, which was readily evident at all times that I observed him participate in sports, practise dentistry, and as a father managing a large, very active family.
"I have difficulty accepting that Jim would knowingly have been involved in the scheme that was depicted recently in the media. Such a situation makes little sense from what I know of Jim. It seemingly would also require me to accept that he would put at risk everything that he has accomplished in life."
Armstrong and his son are not facing charges in Canada.
"We were aware of the U.S. allegations and the charges," said Const. Michael McLaughlin of the Canadian Federal Border Integrity Program. "There was never sufficient evidence to charge in Canada."
The Canadian Curling Association disciplined Armstrong and he has met all the conditions of his punishment, said the association's Greg Sturmlaw. Armstrong is on the national wheelchair curling team, he added.
Armstrong left court Monday, having paid the $30,000, his lawyer said.
"The judge, he has a reputation for being fair and reasonable, and he showed it," Jim Armstrong told me later.

Source http://www.theprovince.com/sports/Curling+hero+fined+fake+Viagra+sales/4284269/story.html#ixzz1EDKQEPok

Viagra Sales Online Soar in lead up to Valentine’s Day!

Sales for erectile dysfunction medication such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra have increased rapidly over the weekend leading up to Valentines Day in 2011.



The firm Walters Kluwer Pharma Solutions revealed data showing that some 199,500 Viagra prescriptions were written in the week before Valentine’s Day 2010 in America, equating to more than 1.3 million Viagra tablets. That is more than 26% more than the lowest-use week of the year: the end of November when families traditionally start to gather to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Dr. Irwin Goldstein, urologist and director of the San Diego Sexual Medicine centre at Alvarado Hospital, joked: “It’s not Valentine’s Day, its Viagra Day.” He said that: “Valentine’s Day is the one day in the 365-day calendar where interest in intimacy and romance is memorialized.”
Goldstein says there is nothing wrong with men looking for an extra ‘oomph’ on Valentine’s Day. He says that having sex on Valentine’s Day is something that many couples look forward to, like sex at Christmas or on a birthday.

Many men have cut back on spending and going out, but when it comes to Valentine’s Day, they have got themselves well prepared. Some have booked a table at a restaurant, while others are staying in for a cosy night with their partner. Others are staying at a hotel for the night, and some are even going away for the weekend.
The one thing they all have in common, is that they are all expecting a little something extra later on, and so have bought Viagra online to make sure it is a very special night for both of them.

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Kevin Smith loses weight after Refusal from Plane

US Director Kevin Smith has recently lost nearly five stone and admitted he was shamed into losing the weight after he was told to leave an airplane because he was too overweight for one seat.

The 'Clerks' filmmaker famously launched angry rants on Twitter at Southwest Airlines last year after the humiliating incident.

“I’ll lose the weight, but I’m not putting on thinner clothes.

“I feel mixed feelings... I sympathise far more with heavier people than I ever will with thin (people). I’ll never be thin. Look, Let's be honest, I’ve lost 65 pounds, but nobody’s going ‘I want to sleep with you’, they’re just like, ‘Keep going, you look better.’” Smith Said.


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So far Viagra has ruled the roost in the erectile dysfunction market with Cialis also hot on its heals with. But Levitra has also been working for men for many years now as well and has gained a good reputation from customers and doctors alike.

Levitra works the same way Viagra does, has similar ingredients, and works about the same length of time when taken  which is about up to 4hrs. But as Levitra has a much lower dose range than Viagra it has been reported that common side effects that occur with Viagra don't with Levitra.

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But buying any medication online can be risky and you should always make sure that the company you buy from are registered in the UK and are supplying genuine medication.

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Regaine hair loss treatment now in a foam at Medical Specialists Pharmacy

Regaine (Minoxidil) has been around for a while, helping men and women with hair loss keep or even re-grow their hair. This has been in a solution form which has to be sprayed on to the scalp and rubbed in, which has been reported that its leaves a sticky feeling in your hair and scalp.

So now McNeil Healthcare (UK) Limited have release Regaine Foam. McNeil Healthcare  say "the innovative new Regaine Foam contains a 5% concentration of minoxidil."

• Helps prevent further hair loss and regrow hair
• Results may be noticeable in just 8 weeks
• Apply directly to your scalp—twice a day, every day
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Medical Specialists Pharmacy are now please to announce that they stock Regaine Foam from as little as £55.99 for the triple pack.

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Customs in Germany have seized a record loot of drugs designed for illegal doping in sport

Customs in Germany have seized a record loot of drugs designed for illegal doping in sport, German media report. Anabolic steroids were among the drugs worth millions of pounds, found in a warehouse at Nidda-Wallernhausen, in the central German state of Hessen.ARD television said the many ampoules and tablets had come from illegal labs in Europe, India, Pakistan and China.

Dozens of suspects were questioned in Germany and Austria. One person is under arrest in Hessen, a spokesman for the state prosecutor's office in Giessen said. Viagra and hormone pills were among the two tonnes of drugs seized in Hessen, spokesman Jochen Fabrizius told the BBC. The German trafficking ring had posted drugs internationally to customers who used mail-order websites, investigators say. "The investigation is continuing.

The drugs were targeted at bodybuilders," Mr Fabrizius said, adding that the trade had probably been going on since 2007. The Spiegel news website says there are suspicions that some top athletes were also ordering the drugs. The raw chemicals for the drugs are believed to have come from labs in India which used cheap labour.

Thieves hard up for OxyContin, take Viagra

Male impotence medicines were stolen by two thieves who robbed from a Canadian drugstore early yesterday, when OxyContin a prescription pain-killer was unavailable, according to police.

The suspects, both in their 20s, entered an Ogden Shoppers Drug Mark at around 11 a.m. and, armed with a handgun, demanded OxyContin from the pharmacist.  When none was available they asked for Viagra and Cialis.

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“They serve quite different purposes,” said duty Insp. Keith Cain. “Perhaps they believe there is a market for Viagra and Cialis.”

Pfizer to close Sandwich site, home of Viagra

Pfizer Inc is to close its research and development centre in Sandwich in Kent, which employs 2,400 people, dealing a major blow to the UK’s scientific work place. The world's biggest drug maker said on Tuesday it would exit the site over the next 18 to 24 months as part of a global program to create a more focused and sustainable R&D machine.

The closure is the latest in a wave of research cutbacks by large pharmaceuticals, which face a record number of patent expires on big-selling medicines that will slash revenue. The majority of those working at Sandwich will be made redundant, although "several hundred" may be transferred to other Pfizer sites or external partners, the U.S. company said.

"This is a shocking wake-up call," said Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience at the University of Oxford. "We must respond to this signal that one of our most important industries no longer has confidence in the future of British science."

Sandwich is Pfizer's biggest R&D facility in Europe and the largest R&D site of any foreign-owned drug maker in Britain. It has been a base for drug discovery at the group since 1954. Business minister, Vince Cable, said the move was "extremely disappointing" and the government would be meeting with Pfizer as a matter of urgency to discuss alternative ways of using the facilities and buildings.

Pfizer insisted the move was no reflection on the workforce or the operating environment in Britain but Linda McCulloch, national officer for the Unite trade union, said it would be "devastating" for the local economy.
The UK has traditionally punched above its weight in drug research, but has been hit in the past year by planned cuts at AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline.

Researchers at Pfizer's large Sandwich site, which resembles a university campus, have been responsible for discovering some of Pfizer's most successful products, including impotence pill Viagra, heart drug Norvasc and HIV/AIDS medicine Celsentri

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Cialis sales double in China 2010 according to Eli Lilly

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Eli Lilly manufactures of Cialis the erectile dysfunction drug for men, saw sales of Cialis in China doubled in 2010.

Such an aggressive expansion, according to Chen Jialin (transliterated), vice president for the Lilly China anti-infective agent and special drug sales division, is in part attributable to an enlarged retail distribution network. The US-based company said that both its Cialis sales representative and the hospitals and drugstores it covered more than doubled in the year.

The company, as a new comer in the retail segment, is learning to work with its retail partners in distribution in the world's most populous market, said Mr. Chen. China's (erectile dysfunction) ED treatment market is estimated to stand at CNY 8 billion at the moment.

The maker will need to beef up its brand reputation in the hospital and retail distribution channels to get a larger slice of the local market, pointed out a market observer.

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