Fake vaccines: Centre issues guidance to states

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, September 5

Days after the WHO issued a fake Covid vaccine alert for India and Uganda, the government on Sunday issued guidance to states on how to identify fake batches of Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V being used here.

The advisory follows an alert from the WHO about fake Covishield batches in India and a nudge to the government to detect batches in public interest.

Issuing a medical product alert on falsified Covishield vaccines identified in its African and South-East Asia Regions, the WHO said on August 16, “The falsified products were reported in July and August 2021. The genuine manufacturer of Covishield (Serum Institute of India) has confirmed that the products listed in this alert are falsified. These falsified products have been reported at the patient level in Uganda and India.”

The health ministry has now listed specific parameters in its guidance to help states identify fraud batches.

For Covaxin authentication, the government has said, “There is an invisible UV helix or a DNA like structure on the Covaxin label. This is visible only under UV light. The micro text hidden in the label claims Dots, which is written as Covaxin; there is a green foil effect in the X of Covaxin.”

For Covishield the guidelines are even more elaborate. Authentication details include — the text font of the generic name is in un-bolded format; the label is overprinted with CGS NOT FOR SALE; The SII logo is printed at a unique angle; the letters are printed in a special white ink.

The WHO had earlier said falsified Covid-19 vaccines posed a serious risk to global public health and placed an additional burden on vulnerable populations and health systems and called for urgent detection and removal of falsified product batches in India and Uganda to prevent harm to patients.