Pfizer identifies fake Covid-19 shots abroad as criminals exploiting vaccine demand

About 80 people at a clinic in Mexico received a fake vaccine for a dose of about $ 1,000, although it does not appear to have been physically damaged. The vials, which are in beach-style beer coolers, had a different batch number than those shipped to the state and an incorrect expiration date, said Dr. Manuel de la O, the state health secretary. Nuevo León.

Polish authorities said no one had received the counterfeit vaccine, which was confiscated from a man’s apartment.

The findings are the latest in an effort between law enforcement and drug manufacturers such as Pfizer, Moderna Inc.

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and Johnson & Johnson to curb criminal activity related to Covid-19 vaccines. The global firing of shots has provided criminals with a new opportunity to take advantage of unsuspecting people.

“Everyone on the planet needs it. Many are desperate for it, “said Lev Kubiak, Pfizer’s head of global security. “We have a very limited supply, a supply that will increase as we go up and other companies enter the vaccine space. In the meantime, there is a perfect opportunity for criminals.”

The United States, Mexico and other countries have confiscated and removed dozens of websites that claim to sell shots or are affiliated with vaccine manufacturers such as Moderna and Pfizer, according to government records and officials. Fake business-like websites appeared to seek out personal information from consumers for use in identity fraud schemes, according to government and industry officials.

Police in China and South Africa last month confiscated thousands of doses of counterfeit Covid-19 vaccines in warehouses and manufacturing plants, arresting dozens of people, according to the international police agency Interpol. Mexico is also investigating a shipment of about 6,000 doses of the alleged Sputnik vaccine from Russia, which were confiscated from a private plane bound for Honduras. Authorities have not determined whether the vaccines are genuine.

For months, agents from the National Center for the Coordination of Intellectual Property Rights, an investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, have been investigating fraud related to the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, recovering machines fakes, personal protective equipment and other products worth $ 48 million. products. Last fall, researchers focused their attention on including Covid-19 vaccines that were about to be eliminated by regulators, starting with online scams. According to DPI officials, they have removed 30 websites and confiscated 74 web domains.

So far, no counterfeit vaccine has been discovered in the U.S., according to DHS. But the limited supply of Covid-19 shots and their high demand may lead people to seek vaccines outside official channels, especially in countries such as Mexico and Brazil, where Covid-19 cases are high and there is a history of counterfeit prescription drugs, security experts said.

“Whenever you see this mismatch between demand and supply in certain areas, there are people who are willing to fill that gap with counterfeits,” said Tony Pelli, a BSI Group consultant who focuses on drug safety. “For new drugs, it’s usually a matter of time before you see people trying to counterfeit them.”

Counterfeit prescription drugs have grown more lucratively in the past decade, according to industry and security officials. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the counterfeit prescription drug market is valued at more than $ 200 billion annually.

The distribution of counterfeit vaccines against Covid-19 is also easier than stealing and selling legitimate shots because of extreme security measures taken by countries and drug manufacturers during the pandemic, Pelli said. “With fakes, you can just show up and say,‘ Here you have Covid vaccines, we have some, don’t ask how, and start distributing them, ’Pelli said.

Major drug manufacturers such as Pfizer employ security teams made up of former police officers who help form government agencies and assist in investigations related to prescription drug counterfeits. Pfizer, in recent years, collaborated with law enforcement to find sellers of fake doses of treatment for erectile dysfunction Viagra and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

One tactic used by IPR Center agents is to search the light and dark network with keywords related to the vaccines provided by their manufacturers.

“We have never seen so much fraud, misinformation or schemes,” said Steve Francis, director of the DPI Center, which has opened more than 35 cases related to scams against the Covid-19 vaccine.

Mr. Francis and Pfizer’s agents began meeting weekly last fall to prepare for scams and counterfeits. During a presentation, company officials said they did not initially release images of the authentic labels on the bottle in part as a means to stay ahead of criminals.

Pfizer also works with local law enforcement in cases of counterfeit vaccines such as those recently discovered in Mexico and Poland.

According to Polish authorities and Pfizer, in January Polish police confiscated several vials filled with a liquid and labeled as a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from a man’s apartment. According to Polish prosecutors leading the investigation, no one is believed to have received a false shot. Polish police arrested the man, accused of fraud, according to Polish authorities.

Pfizer suspected the vaccines were fake because they were not in the vials the company uses for its Covid-19 shot, Kubiak said. They were identical to the containers the police recovered from the apartment of the man who had a label for another company’s anti-wrinkle treatment.

Pfizer tested the liquid in the vials that was intended to be his Covid-19 vaccine at his lab in Groton, Conn., Finding it had no key ingredients and contained hyaluronic acid, which is used in skin products. .

In early February, Mexican police raided a clinic in northern Nuevo Leon state, where people were allegedly given fake vaccines. Mexican police arrested six people.

“People were injected with distilled water,” the O doctor said in a telephone interview. A spokesman for Mexico’s attorney general’s office, which is conducting the investigation, declined to comment.

Pfizer, which is working with DHS officials to support Mexican authorities in the case, confirmed that the vaccine was fake after using special microscopic and light tests to find that the vial’s adhesive label was not authentic. Kubiak declined to provide additional details, but said Pfizer may conduct further testing of the liquid.

Kubiak said he expects counterfeiting to get worse as it unfolds. “Right now, consumers are easily fooled,” he said. “They are desperate for the vaccine.”

Write to Jared S. Hopkins at [email protected] and José de Córdoba at [email protected]