Fake Zydus Sirolimus?

#1

I looked up what my Zydus Sirolimus 1 mg pills looked like and the only image I could find was the image below on Drugs.com that identifies it as an Antihistamine.

I am all of a sudden uncertain if I am actually getting the real thing. Does everyone’s Zydus look like this?
The packaging all looks legit and matches all the photos i’ve seen and doesn’t look tampered with in any way. Received the order from two vendors who have been vouched for on this forum.

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Indian Rapamycin brands with verification codes on the pill sheets?
#2

I have photos in my DIY Rapamycin Toothpaste thread - perhaps a little hard to see the actual tablets. I think the risk of counterfeit rapamycin is extremely low - its a cheap generic medication… if anyone is going to bother to make a fake medication they’re going to do it for an expensive, high demand, proprietary drug (like Wegovy / semaglutide or something like that they can sell for $30 per tablet).

See photos here, also share your manufacture batch number and date details and I’m sure they match up with what other people are getting: DIY Rapamycin Toothpaste and Flossing Paste

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#3

Thanks. There is no imprint of “351” on yours, though they could all be smooth face up in the photo.

“I think the risk of counterfeit rapamycin is extremely low - its a cheap generic medication”

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment but It would be nice to have some reassurance after coming across a pill identifier image showing a different drug.

#5

I’m not at home right now so can’t look to confirm the “351” - but if you click on the photo of the tablets in the bowl I think you can see some numbers. I’ll check and confirm tonight when I get home, or perhaps if someone else here has access to their Zydus sirolimus they can look and confirm there is a 351 on them.

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#6

No - I’m just assuming the criminal would want to make the most amount of money for the least amount of work.

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#7

Just looking for confirmation on the Zydus, thanks.

#9

Ah! Your Zydus pills are the same. I zoomed in closer and could just make out the “351”.

Thanks. Feeling more confident about the product. “351” probably refers to something that is not specific to the drug itself.

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#10

My Zydus tablets have 351 stamped on them.

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#11

Are those tablets enteric coated?

#12

All the commercial sirolimus tablets have some sort of coating to avoid the disolution in the stomach (vs. intestine).

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#13

If there’s one thing manufacturers would cheap out on is the enteric coating, as I think that’s a relatively expensive part of the process. At least Nootropicsdepot’s enteric coated NMN cost more than twice the amount compared to standard. I’m not saying it is now, but one thing to look out for in the future. And they had a lot of problems with their enteric coating, not meeting the required specifications, changing different manufacturers.

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#14

How can I tell if it has enteric coating?

#15

Thanks. It seems my Zydus is what everyone else is getting.

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#16

I suppose you could prepare a few acid solutions which you compare different tablets and capsules, like rapamune in one, zydus in another, random supplement in another, enteric coated capsule in another, etc.

#17

The idea of someone going through the effort to make fake zydus rapamycin pills that actually have matching imprints and packaging… it would be one of the dumbest scams of all time. The market for these are incredibly small and the real ones aren’t even that expensive.

I’m not saying this might not be a problem some day, but there really aren’t enough of us out here yet to be worth the effort and expense of making fake product to scam.

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#18

I completely agree but I wanted to confirm after coming across the Drugs.com pill identifier, which I posted at the top of the thread.

#19

Exactly… there are I think a few very good reasons that rapamycin is a poor target for counterfeiters (and therefore a low risk for us of getting “fake” drugs):

  1. Generic/Low cost drug (so minimal profit potential for counterfeiters)
  2. Small market (there are about 70,000 organ transplant patients in the USA per year and only some of them use rapamycin/sirolimus. The market for the longevity community is perhaps a few thousand people right now. Compare this to a drug like semaglutide (wegovy) still on-patent, and in demand potentially by about 50% of the population for weight loss and diabetes… You have to assume that anyone making a fake drug would rationally prefer to sell it at high price (i.e. non generic drug) to tens of millions of people, vs. sell a cheap drug to a few thousand people.
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#20

Newbalance, I see your point as well as the points everyone else is making. However, I checked the website and noted the 6 mm diameter of the cetirizine hydrochloride pills in the specifications. I checked the diameter of the Zydus pills I have and they are 6 mm. Hmmm … I need to research further.

https://www.drugs.com/imprints/rdy-351-14298.html

I assume www.drugs.com (noted above) is for pills produced for the American market, but I can not find a pill identifier site for drugs produced specifically in India for the Indian market so far.

Arnab Kumar Nath is the General Manager of Zydus Trans-Immune (division of Cadila Healthcare Ltd). He has a LinkIn profile. Someone with the proper credentials may be able to ask him a few pertinent questions in a nice way. But, of course, the phrase “Fat Chance” comes to mind. LOL!

One last thought: Who has taken a rapamycin blood test while using Zydus Siromus? I think I was using Biocon at the time and the blood test I took was positive for rapamycin. It seems a blood test would be reasonable proof of Zydus not being fake.

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#21

All my Zydus tablets also have “351” stamped on them.

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#22

I take Zydus and have taken a blood test and it definitely has Rapamycin in it.

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