Fake anti-rabies vaccine row: Silence of drug regulators sparks outrage
Public outrage is growing over the failure of India’s drug regulators to issue a timely advisory on counterfeit anti-rabies vaccines. Experts say the silence endangered lives, with clarity emerging only after global health agencies issued alerts.
Hyderabad: Widespread anger is mounting among the general public and public health experts over the failure of the country’s drug regulators to issue a timely public advisory regarding counterfeit versions of the live-saving anti-rabies vaccine, Abhayrab.
The controversy stems from a discovery made nearly a year ago. In January 2025, the Hyderabad based manufacturer Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) blew the whistle, identifying a counterfeit batch (KA24014) with tampered packaging. While IIL maintained that it immediately notified the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and law enforcement, the government opted for a quiet investigation rather than a public warning or an advisory. The issue exploded into the public eye a few days ago when health authorities in Australia, the US, and the UK issued global alerts, warning that vaccines circulated since late 2023 might be ineffective.
Prominent Hyderabad-based pediatrician Dr. Sivaranjani Santosh has been vocal about the ethical lapse, criticizing the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) for remaining mum while lives were at stake.
“Rabies is a fatal disease! People had a right to know about the possibility of having received a counterfeit version. According to me, it is criminal not to have alerted us. Many veterinarians, animal rescuers, and bite victims may have taken the counterfeit version without knowing it,” says Dr Sivaranjani.
While IIL reported the fraud to CDSCO, the top regulatory drug authorities did not issue any advisory to the general public. Instead, an internal strict advisory and ‘take action’ notice was issued to all State drug control administrations to crack down and streamline the rabies vaccine availability in India.
The lack of an official look-back’ exercise in India, similar to those conducted by the UK’s NHS, has been termed a massive failure of institutional ethics.
With no statement on the issue from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), there is a lot of confusion over the status of the rabies vaccine in India. “My friend took the rabies vaccine in Bhubaneswar last month, Recently news about fake rabies vaccine in India created a concern among people. Kindly confirm whether vaccines given at Government hospitals are safe and genuine,” Soumyajeet Biswal, a worried individual on X recently posted.
As of now, the MoHFW and CDSCO are yet to address why a general advisory was withheld for months, leaving the public to rely on foreign health alerts for a crisis unfolding in their own backyard.
