FirstMed Consulting Blog

I’d like to address an ongoing issue in the business of online impotence treatments- the mythical Cialis ‘soft tab’. For those not in the know Cialis (tadalafil) is a prescription drug for treatment of erectile dysfunction which was released in 2003 as a competitor for Pfizer’s Viagra and Bayer’s Levitra. Cialis is also known as the “le weekend” pill because its effects last for up to 36 hours. Cialis is under patent until 2016 which basically means that it is illegal for anyone other than Lily Icos to produce the drug. However, there are many unregistered companies breaking this law and producing versions of the drug in backstreet operations and selling them online at cut prices. One of the most well known of these is the Cialis ‘Soft Tab’.

The ‘soft tab’ doesn’t exist in any real sense. It is an illegal generic version of Lily Icos’s Cialis. However, ‘soft tabs’ enjoy very strong brand recognition online due in part to very successful spamming campaigns. Here at Firstmed, we get a lot of customers enquiring about them on a regular basis. These customers are generally unaware that Cialis soft tabs are illegal copies of Lily Icos’s patent protected product.

You don’t need to understand fully how pharmaceutical laws work but it is important to bear this in mind. Advising people to steer clear of generics is not simply about protecting Bayers patent, it’s a safety issue. The companies that produce and supply these potentially dangerous versions of Lily ’s Cialis are unregulated and operate outside the scope of the law. The bottom line is - you don’t know what you are getting and how safe it is. If you would like to learn more about generics and what to look out for visit our generics page.