The new method, published in npj Vaccines, analyses the vaccine vial label and its adhesive and therefore allows genuine vaccine vials to be retained in the supply chain. Furthermore, the study has shown that the technique can also differentiate genuine Covid-19 vaccine liquid from falsified vaccine surrogates, using a recently published method developed using non-Covid vaccines.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10.5% of medicines worldwide in low and middle-income countries are substandard or are falsified (i.e. fake) medicines made by criminals. This threatens global health since the medicines and vaccines fail to prevent and treat the diseases for which they were intended, and they risk additional adverse health consequences if the ingredients used by criminals in the falsified products are harmful.
The development of vaccines against Covid-19 was a remarkable achievement marked by the supply and distribution of billions of doses worldwide. Although the vast majority of Covid-19 vaccines were genuine and efficacious, falsified vaccines, including the COVISHIELD™ vaccine, were found in Uganda, India and Myanmar. In these cases, the label on the vaccine vial had also been falsified.
In this new study, researchers in the VIE team have used devices, called MALDI-ToF mass spectrometers, which are widely available throughout the world and used in hospitals for identifying bacteria. They tested the COVISHIELD™ vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India and show for the first time that analysis of spectra from the vaccine vial label and its adhesive could be used to detect falsified vaccines – this novel method could be applied to other medicine labels.