The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urged the public not to patronize vaccines against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that are being sold online, as these could be fake vaccines.
"I am sure that vaccines sold online are falsified and fake vaccines. They should not be patronized by anybody otherwise they are only giving their money to the criminals," FDA Deputy Director General, Dr. Oscar Gutierrez, said in a virtual forum on Tuesday, March 30.
"Globally there are no vaccines authorized online. There are no legitimate vaccine sold online. So, any vaccine sold online are falsified, they are fake and they should not be in the online market," he added.
Gutierrez also asked the public to receive their COVID-19 vaccines in the designated immunization sites of the government to ensure that they are not getting fake ones.
"The public is encouraged to receive their vaccines only in the Department of Health designated vaccination sites," he said.
"The vaccines should be received by the public in DOH authorized vaccination sites so we are assured and we are confident that the vaccines that we receive are genuine," added Gutierrez.
As of now, he said, there are no fake vaccines in the Philippines yet.
"We are trying to prevent their entry to our supply chain," said Gutierrez.