It raised a few eyebrows – and heaven knows what else – when pharmaceutical giant Pfizer sent “Viagra boxers” to family doctors in Ireland.

The underwear, branded with the Pfizer logo, was sent out to doctors to mark the 10th anniversary of the sale of Viagra in Ireland.

One doctor said that he “hadn’t had such a good laugh at a time when there weren’t many opportunities to do so.”

Another doctor said she wasn’t going to return the boxer shorts and only regretted that a Viagra-equivalent for women wasn’t on the market.

The company said that the item in question “represents a breach of our internal policies and procedures” and offered family doctors a freepost envelope to return the boxer shorts.

Apparently, a Pfizer employee thought that Viagra sales would be given a bit of a boost by distributing the boxers.

The company said that it launched an internal investigation into why the employee sent the underwear out.

Pfizer released a statement saying: “This should not have occurred and only did so through the poor judgment of a Pfizer employee.

“As soon as Pfizer management became aware of the issue, we acted immediately to apologize for this error of judgment and to seek return of the item.

“A full internal investigation to ensure this type of incident does not occur again has already commenced.”