An undercover Health Canada operation at a Burnaby sex shop led to criminal charges against a company now on trial for allegedly selling prescription erectile dysfunction drugs disguised as natural herbal health products.
Health Canada investigator Wang Di Ted Cheng testified in Richmond provincial court Tuesday at the trial of MFH International Enterprise Inc., which owns adult stores in Burnaby, Vancouver and Richmond, including Love in Love (also known as Male & Female Harmony) at 4554 Kingsway in Burnaby.
MFH has been charged under the Food and Drugs Act for allegedly selling two products labelled as herbal sexual enhancements that actually contained large quantities of the prescription erectile dysfunction drugs tadalafil (sold under the brand name Cialis) and sildenafil (sold as Viagra).
MFH's sole director Duo Zhang (also known as Andy Zhang) was also originally charged but those charges were stayed last September.
The alleged illegal sales took place between November 2020 and February 2021.
The company has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Anonymous tip
Cheng told the court he got an anonymous tip that led him to the Love in Love store on Dec. 2, 2020.
He described how he posed as a customer at the store and pre-ordered a $139.99 box of a product called "Harmony," which he picked up on Dec. 17, 2020.
When Crown prosecutor Sharon Steele asked Cheng if anyone at the store had given him any information about the contents of the product or told him it contained Cialis or Viagra, he said no.
The box the product came in was labelled with statements including "Natural 100% herbal" and "Safe with no side effects," according to Cheng.
But a Health Canada analysis of the pills found they contained nearly three times the commercially available dose of Cialis, he said.
Cheng said he got the test results on Feb. 10 and Health Canada raided three MFH retail locations in Burnaby, Richmond and Vancouver eight days later.
Head aches, leg pain
At the stores, inspectors seized financial records, boxes of Harmony and of another product called Passion Fem, which had been the subject of an October 2019 recall because it contained undeclared sildenafil..
At the Richmond location, Cheng testified he also seized Harmony packaging material.
Among the financial receipts, Cheng said Health Canada officials found two sales receipts from the Burnaby location that had handwritten notes on them indicating the customers had returned leftover Harmony pills.
One note indicated a customer had complained of a headache and leg pain after ingesting Harmony; the other said a customer had complained of leg pain after using the product.
During cross-examination, however, Cheng acknowledged the investigation hadn't turned up any other reports of adverse effects from Harmony and there was no other information about who had made the complaints at the Burnaby store or whether they had been made by two different people.
Defence lawyer Donald Sorochan also questioned Cheng about the anonymous tip that had sparked the investigation.
"Does it concern you that competitors may put in a complaint and cause an investigation of somebody that's a competitor?" Sorochan asked.
"No, because all files are dealt with with the same information assessment," Cheng said.
Cheng's cross-examination is expected to wrap up Wednesday.
Trial continues
The eight-day trial is scheduled to continue through Friday and then resume Oct. 17 to 20.
Steele said the Crown intends to call four witnesses: Cheng, two Health Canada experts and Gordon Chen, vice president at NuEra Nutraceutical Inc.in Richmond.
The Crown expects Chen will testify that MFH director Andy Zhang "on behalf of MFH, brought a bag of powder to him and contracted with NuEra to have the powder put into capsules and then put into blister packs for retail purposes," according to Steele's opening statement.
"The Crown expects that the evidence will show that MFH was not only selling Harmony but it was their signature product that the company personally processed and labeled," Steele told the court.
The allegations against MFH have not been proven.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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