ON ALERT FOR FAKE COVID-19 VACCINES

Detected recently in Mexico and Poland, the vaccines are supposedly produced by Pfizer

AUTHORITIES in the Philippines are keeping a close watch on fake Covid-19 vaccines in the market, after they were detected in Mexico and Poland.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has issued an advisory to warn people of the vaccines, supposedly made by Pfizer, the Philstar.com portal reported.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said local government units (LGUs) and the public should be cautious when sourcing their vaccines.

“While there is no information yet on the presence of the fake vaccines in the country, LGUs should exercise increased diligence as these fake vaccines may be dangerous to the health of those who get inoculated,” Año said in a statement.

“Now that Covid-19 cases have gone up, what we need is protection against this disease and not another problem that fake vaccines can bring,” he said, urging the Philippine National Police to be vigilant about such fake vaccines making their way into the country.

Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a global medical product alert on the existence of a fake Covid-19 vaccine with the product name “BNT162b2”, supposedly manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech.

The fake vaccine, with lot number “783201” and an expiry date of Aug 24, was first discovered in Mexico.

It is still undergoing laboratory analysis by WHO.

The DILG said the public should report any information on fake vaccines to the National Task Force Vaccine Cluster.

The US pharmaceutical company Pfizer had said that it had identified counterfeit versions of its Covid-19 vaccine in Mexico and Poland.

The doses were seized by authorities in the two countries and confirmed by tests to be fake. In Mexico, they had false labels, while the substance in Poland was believed to be anti-wrinkle treatment.