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Crooks target Covid vaccines

[ March 30, 2021   //   Chris ]

Counterfeiters have already targeted Covid 19 vaccines “multiple times” warns insurers, the TT Club. Managing director of loss prevention, Mike Yarwood, says that two organisations have recently been broken up. In one case more than 3,000 saline filled vials were being sold as authentic vaccines and seized in Chinese police raids.

In another raid 400 vials, the equivalent of around 2,400 doses, were discovered to contain fake vaccine in a warehouse in Gauteng, South Africa.  However, it remains unclear what volume of fakes have already been manufactured and shipped, he says.

Vaccines face other threats, too, he continues. In the Netherlands, ten stowaways found in a trailerload of pharmaceutical products, led to the cargo being contaminated and having to be destroyed.  While in the UK, three arrests were made following the theft from a truck of Covid testing kits worth over £100,000.

He concludes: “Should the responsibilities of the pharmaceutical companies and organisations funding the supply, end at the point of production and sale, leaving local governments to manage security through the supply chain? A degree of uncertainty will prevail and security effectiveness differ from region to region. Operators who are called upon to transport, store and deliver such vital supplies therefore must be super vigilant in guarding against loss through theft and the infiltration of fakes into the supply chain.”

Tags: TT Club