During the past year, the FDA has orchestrated eight recalls of so called "herbal" pills that contained the ingredients found in Viagra , Cialis or Levitra, or their unregulated chemical cousins. Many of the firms were based around LA, California, their offices ranging from an unsigned door in a grungy hall on the fringe of downtown to a gated complex near Beverly Hills.

One such prosecution involved V. Vigor Corp., the Long Island-based maker of Vigor-25. While the product was advertised as containing Asian ginseng, lycium fruit and Chinese yam rhizome, FDA testing indicated that the pills contained Viagra.

Company executive Michael Peng had agreed to stop selling Vigor-25 (fake viagra) following an FDA agent's visit in late 2004, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. But between then and his arrest in September, at least 4.5 million pills were packaged for distribution, the affidavit said. According to prosecutors, Peng thought he could evade tests simply by switching from the sildenafil citrate he imported from China to Levitra's active ingredient, vardenafil - a shipment of which US Customs intercepted from Thailand.

Levitra is marketed by Schering-Plough Corp. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC. – (Sapa-AP)