In India, if anytime you are worried if the medicine is not just fake or counterfeit, You can send a ten-digit code as SMS to 9901099010, and you will get a reply back if the medicine was authentic. You can also find fake medicines in India via SMS and Online.
How to find fake medicines in India via SMS and Online
This service is provided by Pharma Secure, who is now directly connecting to the medicine manufacturers via SMS. below is the process :
- Whenever a unit of medicine is produced at the factory, it is labeled with a unique code.
- When you purchase a medicine, you can send this code which is at the back of the unit to 9901099010
- You will receive an SMS, which tells if the medicine is genuine and provides you will batch number, expiration, and other information.
Online Verification of Medicines in Indian by DAVA
The Indian government offers a way to verify medicines through their DAVA portal for Authentication, track, and trace. The image shows that there are three levels of verification key as marked in the back of the strip. You can enter that code on this page, and get verified.
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Online verification of medicines by Pharma Secure
They have a verification page where you can see how it works precisely. You will have to select the country, mobile number, authentication code (on the back of medicine strip) to get verification status.
Problem with online verification of medicines
There are two significant problems here. First is I have not seen any code on the back of most of the medicine, at least in India. It is available for only medicines which costs a lot. The second question is, what if counterfeiters might copy codes of medicines and then according to print the batch and manufacturing numbers. Is there any way to fight that?
That said, the only other way to figure that out is verifying its cost, and packaging by asking in a second shop. If the packaging looks cheap, the price is too high or low, then its best to get a second opinion.