Real vs fake Remdesivir: All you need to know

New Delhi: India is going through the raging second wave of coronavirus and recorded more than 3,00,000 new infections for a 14th straight day on Wednesday (May 5, 2021). India now has a total of 2,06,65,148 COVID-19 cases, of which, 34,87,229 are active cases.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the demand for Remdesivir injections for seriously ill patients has increased. However, the production of Remdesivir has been doubled recently, but with high demand. the markets have been flooded with fake infections. 

Here are some pointers on how to differentiate between real and fake Remdesivir injections:

1. No Rx: “Rx” is not written before the name of the injection on Fake Remdesivir packages.

2. Capitalisation error: A capitalisation error in the third line written on the package. The genuine package reads as “100 mg/Vial” while the fake one has “100 mg/vial” written on it. One more capitalisation error is found at the bottom of the front side of the fake Remdesivir package. “for use in” is written on the fake drug package while on real it is “For use in”.

3.Warning label: On the backside of the box, the “Warning” label is in red color on the genuine package while the fake Remdesivir has a black-coloured warning label.

4. Alignment error: There is an alignment error in the brand name of the product. Note the gap on the package of fake and genuine Remdesivir injections. The fake vial has an increased gap.

5. Missing Declaration: Just below the warning label, key information “Covifir [brand name] is manufactured under the license from Gilead Sciences, Inc” is missing on the fake injection package.

Apart from these specific errors, there will be many spelling mistakes on the package.

BEWARE! Do not buy #MedicalSupplies from unverified sources.#Remdesivir #IndiaFightsCorona @MoHFW_INDIA @MIB_India @drharshvardhan @PIB_India pic.twitter.com/urjL7qjbjA — MyGovIndia (@mygovindia) May 3, 2021