This story is from June 2, 2021

Gujarat: Fake favipiravir tablets were starch

The country’s first case of counterfeit Covid anti-viral drug, favipiravir, being sold under the brand Favimax-400 and Favimax-200 turned out to be starch tablets. The tablets, which were seized by the Gujarat FDCA on Monday, had been sent to the highly specialized state FDCA lab to be tested for generic drug content. However, these tablets failed the tests on Tuesday.
Gujarat: Fake favipiravir tablets were starch
FDCA officials have also found that the fake drug was also listed on an online pharmacy store and was being sold for Rs 1,096 per strip
AHMEDABAD: The country’s first case of counterfeit Covid anti-viral drug, favipiravir, being sold under the brand Favimax-400 and Favimax-200 turned out to be starch tablets. The tablets, which were seized by the Gujarat FDCA on Monday, had been sent to the highly specialized state FDCA lab to be tested for generic drug content. However, these tablets failed the tests on Tuesday.
FDCA officials have also found that the fake drug was also listed on an online pharmacy store and was being sold for Rs 1,096 per strip.
The counterfeit drug was also available at a number of local stores in three major Gujarat cities.
“We had conducted high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Infrared attenuated total reflection (IR-ATR) tests on the tablets and could not find any favipiravir content. It is basically made of starch. We are following leads and reaching out to all those pharmacies who have been duped,” says Gujarat FDCA chief, HG Koshia.
Koshia further said that the alleged kingpin Sudip Mukherji used to offer bills with fake certification from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) and even WHO. “Many pharmacists carelessly accepted these without verifying the certification numbers even though all pharmacists are trained to cross-check such details. We will be registering a case against them also,” he added.
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