In a statement, Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) denied previous alerts about fake antirabies vaccines in India. The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization alerted the business to the possibility that counterfeit Abhayrab vaccines have been in circulation since November 2023. IIL emphasized that these assertions are inaccurate.
Australian health officials’ warning sparked worries that recipients of fake medicines could not be sufficiently protected against the potentially deadly virus known as rabies. IIL’s Vice President and Head of Quality Management, Sunil Tiwari, informed stakeholders in a statement of the company’s strict pharmacovigilance and quality control procedures. Tiwari said, “The alert does not reflect the current situation,” highlighting the dependability of vaccinations from IIL and its approved distribution routes.
Since 2000, IIL has been producing the Abhayrab vaccine, and it has shipped well over 210 million doses to 40 countries in addition to India. With 40% of rabies vaccinations in India, the vaccine continues to hold a substantial market share. The business emphasized that before being made available to the general public, all of its vaccines go through a rigorous testing and quality assurance process conducted by the Central Drugs Laboratory, a government organization.
IIL proactively discovered a packaging problem in a particular vaccination batch (Batch # KA 24014) in January 2025 and promptly notified Indian law enforcement and regulatory bodies. IIL declared the counterfeit batch off the market and described this incident as isolated. The business keeps reassuring the public and medical professionals about the effectiveness and safety of its products.
The central nervous system is negatively impacted by the viral zoonotic disease rabies. Infected dogs are responsible for the majority of human rabies cases. Once clinical symptoms appear, the condition is almost always fatal. The World Health Organization estimates that between 18,000 and 20,000 people die from rabies in India each year, mostly as a result of dog bites.
Australian officials have encouraged anybody who received Abhayrab after November 1, 2023, to speak with their healthcare providers due to worries about counterfeit vaccines. To guarantee sufficient protection against the illness, replacement doses using approved rabies vaccines might be required. Since rabies is still a major public health concern in India, protecting public health requires a strong emphasis on vaccine integrity.
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