Last December, Australian authorities had flagged counterfeit concerns on the vaccine
| Photo Credit:
Teka77
Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL) has stood by its rabies vaccine Abhayrab, and called on authorities to trace the source of vials recently picked up from an “unlicensed” residential location in Delhi, bearing the same brand name and batch number of the original product.“It is a mandatory practise for vaccines.. every batch gets cleared by the national labs (before release into the market),” IIL Managing Director K Anand Kumar told businessline, adding that there were no complaints on their products (Batch KE25012) released only in the local market. IIL was responding to enforcement action by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) that had collected vials labelled as Abhayrab, Batch KE25012, from Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar.A CDSCO note said that as part of continued surveillance and enforcement, “on 22 April 2026, the Crime Branch, Delhi Police, along with a team of Drugs Inspectors ...conducted a search at an unlicensed premises ...Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi. During the search, Rabies Vaccine (Abhayrab); Batch No.KE25012, which was subsequently found to be misbranded (not manufactured by Indian Immunologicals Ltd.), was seized from the premises.”These samples were sent to the Central Drugs Laboratory, Kasauli, which reported them as “Not of Standard Quality” (NSQ) and misbranded, and the Drug Controller General of India then alerted State regulators on the findings, the CDSCO said.Reiterating that “the samples under question were not manufactured by Human Biologicals Institute (HBI), IIL’s vaccine division” - IIL’s Anand said, the Central laboratory had identified 17 differences between the questionable vials and HBI’s retention samples of the same batch that were submitted for batch release. The company’s batch was tested in November 2025, and about 83,370 vials were supplied through authorised channels, IIL said.The controversy comes, even as India looks to vaccinate and sterilise its community dogs. According to Government data, the country reported 54 deaths from rabies, in 2024.Security featuresIn the last month, IIL has included six security features on its vaccines, including a scratch-card facility to check if the product was genuine, the MD said, as their product was a market leader, and this was the second such incident in recent times.Last December, Australian authorities had flagged counterfeit concerns on the vaccine. IIL had then clarified that the incident involved a single counterfeit batch that the company had flagged with the Indian drug regulator last January.IIL is a subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), and following the latest incident, it has submitted its manufacturing, quality-control, reconciliation and distribution records to CDSCO on 14 August 2026, and subsequently called for investigation on the questionable vials on September 4th , it said.Published on September 5, 2026
