MANILA, Philippines — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health (DOH) have given assurances that they will stop the distribution of counterfeit anti-rabies vaccine called the Verorab Vaccine.
“The FDA and DOH will make sure that the distribution of counterfeit vaccines is stopped,” lawyer Michelle Lapuz, director of FDA’s legal support service center, said in Filipino in an interview over DZMM.
Lapuz said they received the complaint about the vaccine from The Medical City in Pasig City, and they had investigated whether the samples were indeed counterfeit.
“Ang pinagmulan ng complaint from The Medical City. Inihain nila sa amin yung third party complaints. Nag-submit po sila ng samples ng produkto nito na pinaghihinalaan nila counterfeit (The source of the complaint is The Medical City. They filed third-party complaints. They submitted product samples that they suspected were counterfeit),” Lapuz said.
The FDA confirmed from Market Authorization Holder that the vaccine was not registered under their product line, Lapuz said.
“Nakipagsangguni rin kami sa market authorization holder para i-verify kung counterfeit ang mga products na ito (We consulted with the market authorization holder to verify if these products are counterfeit), she said. “Nag-issue po ng (They issued) product verification that these are not legitimate and not registered product under their product line.”
Lapuz added that FDA’s Center for Drugs also found that the vaccine samples were fake and that source is the Philippines.
“Dito sa aming operation, ang source po talagang dito sa Philippines (Here in our operation, the source is really the Philippines),” she said.
Lapuz, however, said they could not offer “critical information” about their investigation as it is still ongoing, but the stocks of the anti-rabies vaccine have been pulled out from The Medical City.
Side effects
Lapuz also warned the public about the health risks and side effects of the fake anti-rabies vaccine.
“Marami itong health risk at side effect. Akala natin nakakagamot, ‘di pala. Akala ng doctor wala kang reaction sa binakuna sa’yo kaya bibigyan ka ng mas matinding dose yun pala walang effective na ingredient dun,” Lapuz said.
(It has many health risks and side effects. We think it could heal, and so if a patient does not have any reaction to the vaccine, the doctor may prescribe a higher dose, only to find out that the drug has no effective ingredient.)
Lapuz added that some counterfeit drugs may also trigger adverse reactions in people taking other medications.
“Meron din pong mga counterfeit drugs na merong halong ingredients na maaaring magkaroon ng reaction sa mga medicine na iniinom mo (There are counterfeit drugs whose ingredients may be in conflict with ingredients from other prescription drugs),” Lapuz said.
The FDA has confirmed in its Advisory 2018-334-A that the Verorab Vaccine, particularly those with batch number H1833, is fake. /ee