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Download An operation by China and the US has shut down illegal Chinese-language websites in the US selling counterfeit date-rape drugs and Viagra, Christopher Hickey, director of the Food and Drug Administration's China Office, told China Daily in an exclusive interview. "We welcome and appreciate the role played by the China State Food and Drug Administration to initiate the campaign and hope to continue combined efforts in the global fight against counterfeit drugs," said Hickey, who has been leading a team of 13 members in China for nearly four years. The action, launched in June, targeted websites in the US advertising counterfeit drugs and health food. This campaign was the first of its kind, targeting mainly Internet sales, since the administration officially opened an office in Beijing in November 2008, he said. The 18 websites shut down were run and hosted by Chinese speakers and targeted mainly Chinese consumers, including Chinese Americans around the world. A third of the websites were selling counterfeit or illegal dietary supplements, he revealed. Some websites offered free Viagra or Cialis, to treat erectile dysfunction, with the purchase of health food. "Both should be bought through a prescription and selling them on the Internet is illegal," he said. The other websites were illegally selling a suppressant marketed and sold for date rape, Hickey said. | 
