A man has been arrested in east China's Zhejiang Province for producing millions of pills purporting to be the erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra and Cialis, according to local police.

A total of 280,000 tablets of fake Viagra and 1.41 million counterfeit Cialis pills, worth a total 238 million yuan (US$29 million), have been seized, according to the Public Security Bureau in Shaoxing on Friday.

Wang Weiping, of the Kangdeli Health Care Co Ltd in Shaoxing's Xinchang County, was arrested in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, in November last year.

Wang was suspected of making and selling fake drugs, police said.

Wang's workshop and equipment were seized later in Guannan County of Jiangsu Province, which neighbours Zhejiang.

Police also revealed that Wang had also been taken into custody for five months in 2003 on similar charges.

Currently, local police and drug administration officials are looking into the case in the hope that they will be able to root out the whole drug network.

Viagra is produced by New York-based Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Limited and Cialis is manufactured by Indianapolis-based Lilly Icos LLC. Both are well-known drugs used to treat impotence.

(China Daily January 16, 2006)