Fake doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine were being sold
in Mexico and Poland for as much as $2,500 a shot, the US drugmaker and an
official confirmed.
At a clinic in Mexico some 80 people received bogus
vaccines, which appeared to have been physically harmless though offered no
protection against the potentially deadly disease ravaging the country, a
report in the Wall Street Journal said.
Mexico’s government spokesman on Covid-19 Hugo Lopez-Gatell
said “no product was found that could affect” the health of those scammed,
adding several people had been arrested.
Lopez-Gatell said the false drugs were offered on social networks for up to $2,500 per unit and were detected by cyber police.
The vials were found in beer coolers and were initially
identified by fabricated lot numbers and expiration dates, Mexican officials
said.
Confiscated vials of bogus Covid vaccines in Poland
contained a cosmetic substance, thought to be anti-wrinkle cream, the company
said.
“We are cognizant that in this type of environment — fueled
by the ease and convenience of e-commerce and anonymity afforded by the
internet — there will be an increase in the prevalence of fraud, counterfeit
and other illicit activity as it relates to vaccines and treatments for
Covid-19,” a Pfizer spokesperson told ABC News.
In February, health authorities in the northern Mexican
state of Nuevo Leon warned about “clandestine” sales of “alleged Covid
vaccines” and urged people not to take them.
In March, the World Health Organization also warned of
“falsified” Pfizer vaccines found in Mexico and warned that the shots “may
still be in circulation in the region.”
Pfizer tested the bogus vials and found they did not contain
the two-shot vaccine it developed with BioNTech.
Lev Kubiak, Pfizer’s head of global security, said the
desperate need and the shortfall in vaccines had led to the scams.
“We have a very limited supply, a supply that will increase
as we ramp up and other companies enter the vaccine space. In the interim,
there is a perfect opportunity for criminals,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
Mexico is also examining a shipment of 6,000 doses of what
is claimed to be the Russian vaccine Sputnik that were seized on a private
plane headed for Honduras last month, the newspaper said.
AFP
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