India Seizes Misbranded Rabies Vaccine

Indian drug authorities have seized a batch of misbranded rabies vaccine from an unlicensed premises in Delhi, marking the second time in less than two years that concerns have been raised about counterfeit doses of the widely used Abhayrab vaccine. The raid, conducted on April 22, 2026, led to the arrest of four individuals, and the regulator has launched an investigation into whether the seized vials constitute a spurious drug. The operation was carried out by the Delhi Police Crime Branch and the Delhi Drugs Control Department at a residential location in Mukherjee Nagar. Officials from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) collected samples of the vaccine, which were labeled as Abhayrab with batch number KE25012. The samples were sent to the government's Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) in Kasauli for analysis. The CDL subsequently reported that the vaccine was misbranded and not of standard quality. According to a notice shared by the news agency ANI, the laboratory found 17 differences between the seized vials and retention samples of the same batch held by the lab.