Published Aug 25, 2026 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 25, 2026 | 9:00 AM
Medicines
Synopsis: A new ASPA–CRISIL report finds that 33 percent of surveyed consumers encountered counterfeit healthcare products in the past year, while 28 percent perceive healthcare products as counterfeit. Hyderabad recorded the highest overall counterfeit exposure at 46 percent. The report highlights weak authentication practices, with only 52 percent checking healthcare product authenticity before purchase.
A medicine can sit on a shelf and pass for the real thing. One in three consumers surveyed across India said they had met a counterfeit healthcare product in the past year. Only 52 percent said they check whether a healthcare product is genuine before they buy it. The figures come from the ASPA-CRISIL State of Counterfeiting in India 2025 report.
The report surveyed 1,639 consumers online across nine cities. It found that consumers put the counterfeit share of healthcare products at 28 percent, up from 20 percent in 2022. 80 percent said counterfeiting in healthcare products had grown over the previous 12 months.
The findings matter because counterfeit healthcare products can harm patients, unlike a fake shirt or a fake charger. The report groups include medicines, medical devices, nutraceuticals and over-the-counter products under healthcare products.
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Counterfeit healthcare products reach consumers through both physical shops and digital platforms, the survey found.
Among consumers who met a counterfeit healthcare product, 63 percent said they got it through a local retail outlet, while 60 percent pointed to online aggregators. About a third also named multi-brand stores and social media adverts run by sellers.
The report also found that consumers price counterfeit healthcare products around 18 percent below genuine ones, which gives price-conscious buyers another reason to pick them.
The report further suggests consumers do not always choose fakes on purpose. Only 23 percent said they would buy a counterfeit healthcare product if they did not know it was fake. Just 4 percent said they would do so only when the genuine product ran out.
This points to the core problem in the counterfeit market: consumers may think they hold a genuine product but lack a quick way to check it.
Only 52 percent of consumers check the authenticity of healthcare products before they buy, against 62 percent across all product categories in the survey. At the same time, 60 percent said they trust their own ability to spot a counterfeit healthcare product.
Consumers lean on physical cues to make that call. Across sectors, 61 percent judge a product by its look and feel, 55 percent check packaging quality and 54 percent look at branding design and colour. For healthcare products, 66 percent check packaging quality, 48 percent look for a hologram and 40 percent check a QR code.
This reliance on appearance opens a gap, because counterfeiters can now copy packaging and branding with ease.
The report points to tamper-evident labels, security packaging, holographic foils, QR codes and NFC-based authentication as ways to close that gap. QR codes and NFC tags can also track a product through the supply chain and let a consumer verify it with a smartphone.
The problem also carries a regional pattern. Hyderabad recorded the highest share among the nine cities surveyed: 46 percent of consumers said they had met a counterfeit product in the previous 12 months. Chennai followed at 39 percent, Bengaluru at 33 percent.
Across all categories, 35 percent of respondents said they had met a counterfeit product in the previous year. Consumer electronics topped the list at 54 percent, followed by automotive parts at 50 percent. Healthcare products stood at 33 percent.
89 percent of respondents said they had bought a counterfeit product at least once in their lifetime. The report notes that this figure rests on self-reported experience and should not stand in for the actual share of Indian consumers who buy counterfeit goods.
The consumer survey sits alongside data from ASPA’s counterfeit news repository.
Between 2018 and 2025, ASPA logged 521 instances of healthcare product counterfeiting. Incidents peaked in 2020 and 2021, when demand for healthcare products rose during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Counterfeiters targeted PPE kits, masks, medicines used to treat Covid-19 symptoms such as cough and cold, and vaccines during this period. In 2025 alone, ASPA logged 52 healthcare counterfeiting incidents, almost double the 27 incidents logged in 2018.
The report says counterfeiting feeds on gaps in supply chains, low uptake of authentication and traceability technologies, and low consumer awareness. A supply chain that runs through manufacturers, distributors, logistics firms and retailers opens several points where a counterfeit product can enter the system.
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Consumer attitudes towards counterfeit products appear to shift, even as exposure stays high.
89 percent said they had bought a counterfeit product at least once, yet 50 percent said they would never knowingly buy one. At the same time, 51 percent said they could buy a counterfeit product if they did not know it was fake. In 2022, only 27 percent gave that same answer.
93 percent of consumers called for more awareness campaigns on counterfeiting.
“Counterfeiting sits deep in the everyday consumer experience across sectors, and that has to serve as a wake-up call for consumer awareness,” said Ankit Gupta, president of ASPA.
Gupta said 62 percent of consumers check product authenticity before they buy, but many still lean on packaging quality and branding rather than stronger authentication methods.
Nakul Pasricha, vice-president of ASPA, said authentication and traceability could close the gap between awareness and actual verification.
“Secure packaging, serialisation, digital authentication, QR-based verification and track-and-trace technologies can build multiple layers of protection,” he said.
Prof Bejon Kumar Misra, international consumer policy expert and honorary member of ASPA, said counterfeit products should count as a consumer protection issue rather than only an intellectual-property problem.
“The last mile of authentication rests with the consumer, and the true measure of success rests on consumer confidence,” he said.
For healthcare products, that last mile can carry consequences that go beyond a financial loss. The report’s findings suggest that consumers grow more aware of the risk, yet the means to verify a medicine or a medical product before use still lags behind that awareness.
(Edited by Sumavarsha)
