After cancer drug counterfeiting scandal, India imposes new tracing requirements
Cancer drugs in India are getting new safety features to improve tracing and curb the spread of counterfeits.
Manufacturers of all cancer drugs sold in India have until July to add a QR code or barcode to their packaging that shows the medicine’s path from factory to patient, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The new requirements apply not only to drugs manufactured in India but also to those imported into the country, such as Keytruda, a health official confirmed to The Indian Express this week.
As part of the Cancer Calculus investigation, The Indian Expressand the International Consortium of Investigative Journalistsexamined India’s counterfeit Keytruda market, where counterfeiters took advantage of cancer patients and sold them falsified versions of the medication.
Reporting focused on a case in 2024 when police in New Delhi arrested 12 men for allegedly stealing empty Keytruda vials from hospitals and pharmacies and refilling them with antifungal medicine. The men then allegedly sold the spurious medicines at a fraction of the cost of authentic Keytruda. In India, the drug is unaffordable for most families; the market price for a 100-mg vial of Keytruda is 150,000 rupees, or more than $1,500. The case affected patients beyond India, too. At least one Nepalese woman purchased medicine from one of the accused defendants, ICIJ reported.
https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/cancer-drug-counterfeits-keytruda-immunotherapy/
COUNTERFEITS Counterfeiters cash in on the world’s bestselling cancer drug Apr 13, 2026
https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/merck-keytruda-cancer-drug-price/
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