Ozempic: Back in the News
In what has become a sad yet true frequent occurrence, counterfeit Ozempic has once again been found in the U.S. supply chain.
On April 3rd, 2025 the FDA was notified by Novo Nordisk that several hundred units of counterfeit Ozempic (semaglutide) injection 1mg were distributed outside of their authorized supply chain. Nonetheless, these drugs have ended up in the hands of either patients, wholesalers, retail pharmacies, and/or healthcare professionals, with the FDA seizing a few identified counterfeit products on April 9th, 2025.
The FDA advises associated parties to check Ozempic products carefully, and to not use, distribute, or sell those with the lot number PAR0362 and serial numbers beginning with 51746517. Products within lot number PAR0362 that do not contain serial numbers beginning with 51746517 are still legitimate.
A Common Theme
Semaglutide and other Glucagon-like-Peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications have become popular for their treatment of type-2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular complications. Their popularity has resulted in product shortages, further incentivizing counterfeiters and channel-diverters to manufacture counterfeit goods that put pharmaceutical vendors and their patients at risk.
When product is deemed potentially counterfeit, manufacturers launch investigations, impose quarantines, and destroy product to prevent these products from infiltrating the legitimate supply chain. The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations states that when a pharmaceutical manufacturer cannot differentiate between good and bad product, the entire returned shipment must be destroyed. However, quarantining and destroying highly-demanded products (like Ozempic) further contributes to the shortage issue if these products are legitimate.
The Importance of VRS Systems in Action
Product verification through Verification Router Service (VRS) systems alleviate this problem, helping pharmaceutical vendors quickly identify counterfeit goods. By facilitating the request for verification of the product identifier applied to a serialized product, VRS systems accurately pinpoint the source of product in seconds, confirming product came from a certified manufacturer and is suitable for subsequent commerce.
It’s hard to differentiate between a legitimate and counterfeit product without VRS systems. As a buyer of product, you can confirm the lot number, expiration date, and GTIN are all legitimate; however, it’s hard to tell if a serial number is legitimate without confirmation from the manufacturer. That’s where VRS systems come in.
VRS Systems are an efficient solution to preventing illegitimate product from entering the supply chain, while also preventing legitimate product from mistakenly being discarded or quarantined. Their continued implementation and widespread use will simplify product verification, prevent unnecessary shortages, and make our supply chains safer.
Unguessable Serialization
This instance of counterfeiting also demonstrates another major issue: consecutive serialization. As demonstrated by the above image, the FDA was able to conclude that potential counterfeits all begin with the same lot number, PAR0362, and contain serial numbers beginning with 51746517.
With consecutive serialization, counterfeiters are more easily able to guess which serial numbers occur next in the sequence. When serial numbers are randomized, non-sequential, they become unguessable and difficult to counterfeit.
Randomized serial numbers make it impossible for counterfeiters to identify a pattern when generating new, illegitimate serial numbers. Reverse-engineering from a genuine product becomes useless, as that single data point provides no reliable way to create other valid serial numbers.
Checking Serialized Product Identifiers
Lastly, continually checking the serialized product identifier as product travels throughout the supply chain ensures detection of counterfeit or diverted product before it reaches patients. In the absence of distributors scanning serialized product identifiers, counterfeit or diverted product can seep into the legitimate supply chain.
As identified in this instance, the importance of VRS Systems, unique serialization, and checking serialized product identifiers cannot be overlooked. Stop guessing and start checking.
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