False: COVIPRI is a safe version of the Remdesivir injection.

There is no Remdesivir injection under the brand name of COVIPRI and the products sold claiming to be rebranded Remdesivir are fake.As India battles against the deadly second wave of coronavirus, a new Remdesivir drug is found to be sold under the name of COVIPRI in many parts of India. There is a shortage of beds, oxygen, and certain drugs. Some miscreants have taken advantage of the situation and repackaged the Remdesivir injection as Covipri, which looks identical. It is sold on the black market for a huge price. Police have raided and found that the medicines being sold under the name of COVIPRI are fake. Delhi Police Commissioner tweeted that they have arrested five people and seized a pharmaceutical unit at Kothdwar in Uttarakhand manufacturing large quantities of fake Remdevisir injections by the name COVIPRI, sold at over Rs 25,000. The DCP of the Delhi Police Crime Branch said the racket has been busted and posted two images of the packaging. On checking, we found that the viral image of COVIPRI contains grammatical and spelling errors. For example, the caution part says, “It is a dangerous to take this preparation Except under medical supervision,” which is grammatically incorrect. The Mettupalayam city specified in the backside of the package is located in Tamil Nadu, not in Sikkim. Also, it mentions Pristine life sciences as the drug manufacturer, but news reports suggest that they are not authorized to manufacture Remdesivir in India. Based on these observations, we mark the claim as False. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.