Alert: Here Is How You Differentiate Covid-19 Drug Remdesivir From Counterfeits

The antiviral medication Remdesivir is on high demand due to surge in Covid-19 cases. To meet the rising demand, the Modi government has increased to more than 90 lakhs vials per month, earlier it was 40 lakhs vials per month.

The government also approved 25 new manufacturing sites for Remdesivir's production since 12 April.

But the sudden spike in demand for the drug after Covid-19 second wave led to its shortage in the market though the public are ready to pay exorbitant prices to get the drug.

Taking advantage of the situation, some have started producing fake Remdesivir to cash on the urgent need of people. Police in some states have arrested many for selling fake Remdesivir vials.

Amid this, an indian Administrative Service officer of 2009 cadre Awanish Sharan has posted a photo showing the differences between original and fake Remdesivir which are visible on its packaging due to some spelling and capitalisation mistakes.

Some points which can help you identify fake Remdesivir from the original as reported by The Free Press Journal are:

1. “Rx” written just before the name of the injection on the front side of the packaging of genuine Remdesivir. Fake Remdesivir packages do not have it.

2. The genuine package reads as “100 mg/Vial” while the fake one has “100 mg/vial” written on it.

3. There is an alignment error in the brand name. Notice the gap on the package of the Remdesivir injections. The fake vial has an increased gap.

4. On the fake package, there is another capitalisation error just below the brand name in 'Vial/vial'.

5. Yet another capitalisation error can be found at the bottom of the front side of the fake Remdesivir package. 'For use in' is written on the genuine package, whereas 'for use in' is written on the fake drug package.

6. The 'Warning' label on the back side of the box is in red on the genuine package. The fake one has a black warning label.

7. Below the warning label, key information “Covifir [brand name] is manufactured under the license from Gilead Sciences, Inc” is completely missing on the fake injection package.

8. You can also find a spelling error in the full address on the package containing the fake Remdesivir injection. It spells Telangana as 'Telagana'.

9. There is one more capitalisation error in the text identifying the drug-maker, Hetero Labs. The fake package reads India as 'india'.