How to spot fake Remdesivir; look for these identifiers on packaging [details]

As India faces the challenge of rising COVID cases, another significant threat is the sale of fake drugs in the black market. Remdesivir is a drug widely used in hospitals for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, but due to the rising cases, there's an acute shortage of anti-viral injection in the market. This has led to increased demand and the birth of black-market trading. As if the sale of Remdesivir in the black market is bad enough, there are cases of fake Remdesivir drugs being sold illegally.

Amid rising cases of fake Remdesivir injections in the market, it is important for consumers to be able to identify the fake injection before use. The use of fake Remdesivir in COVID patients has led to people losing their loved ones. Using these simple markers on the packaging, anyone can spot a fake Remdesivir.

How to spot fake Remdesivir?

IPS officer Monika Bhardwaj has explained how the packaging of fake Remdesivir has all the necessary clues. The officer has made note of nine errors that one can easily spot on the package of a fake Remdesivir drug.

1. Fake Remdesivir packages won't have "Rx" written just before the name of the injection.
2. The genuine package reads as "100 mg/Vial" but the fake one has "100 mg/vial" written on it. A capitalisation error is common in fake packages.
3. There is alignment error in the brand name of the product. One can easily notice the gap on the package of fake and genuine Remdesivir injections. The fake vial has slightly increased gap.
4. Another capitalisation error can be found below the brand name in "Vial/vial" on the fake package.
5. At the bottom of the front side of the fake Remdesivir package. "For use in" written on the genuine package is "for use in" on the fake drug package. Another capitalisation error.
6. On the back of the box, the "Warning" label is in red on the genuine package. The fake one has a black warning label.
7. Key information "Covifir [brand name] is manufactured under the licence from Gilead Sciences, Inc" is missing on the fake injection package just below the warning label.
8. There is another capitalisation error in the text identifying the drug-maker, Hetero Labs. The fake Remdesivir package reads India as "india" with the lower-case letter.
9. Finally, the spelling of Telangana is wrong and printed as "Telagana" in the fake Remdesivir injection.