---
title: Thousands of Counterfeit Ozempic Pens, One Serial Number
description: A US indictment says thousands of counterfeit Ozempic units shared false serial numbers, kept shipping after an insider warning and an FDA alert. What it shows.
image: https://eonpass.com/hubfs/blog-images/21-image-Oct-06-2026-07-59-59-9219-AM.jpg
---

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# Thousands of Counterfeit Ozempic Pens, One Serial Number

A US indictment says thousands of counterfeit Ozempic units shared false serial numbers, kept shipping after an insider warning and an FDA alert. What it shows.

[Thomas Rossi](https://eonpass.com/blog/author/thomas-rossi)

 Oct 6, 2026

---

**TL;DR**

- The US Justice Department has charged two Indian nationals over an alleged scheme to sell counterfeit Ozempic from China to US distributors between July 2023 and April 2024. One was extradited from Italy; both are presumed innocent.
- US law requires a unique serial number on every prescription drug package. According to the indictment, deliveries of up to 1,008 counterfeit units all carried the same serial number, 430834149057.
- An alleged co-conspirator flagged the duplicate serials on 19 November 2023; the next shipment went out the following day. Deliveries were timed around a warehouse audit, and a 60,000-unit order was discussed after the FDA published the serial number.
- A unique serial number cannot prove its own uniqueness. The duplication is only visible to someone who compares sightings across cartons, deliveries and trading partners.

---

On 29 September the US Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Florida had charged two Indian nationals, Swapnadip Roy, 33, and Vicky Ramancha, 37, over an alleged scheme to sell counterfeit Ozempic from China into the US drug supply. Roy was arrested in Italy on an INTERPOL Red Notice, extradited, and made his first court appearance in Tampa the same day. Reuters reports that he pleaded not guilty and that Ramancha remains at large.

Both men are charged with conspiracy to smuggle and to defraud the United States, three counts of smuggling, and two counts of selling or holding counterfeit drugs for sale. Each faces a maximum of 71 years in prison. The indictment was filed in September 2025 and unsealed in June 2026. Everything below comes from it or from the FDA, and it is an allegation: neither man has been convicted.

According to the indictment, between July 2023 and April 2024 the two men, both living in Dubai, obtained product labelled as Ozempic from sources in China that Novo Nordisk had not authorised, and sold it to buyers in the United States at deeply discounted prices. The cartons, labels and needles were counterfeit. The product was stored in US warehouses and shipped on to distributors in Florida and elsewhere.

## One serial number on every carton

Under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), every package of a prescription drug distributed in the US has to carry a product identifier that includes a unique serial number. In the indictment's words, that requirement "strengthened the ability of drug manufacturers and the FDA to identify suspect, illegitimate, and counterfeit drugs."

The counterfeit cartons did have serial numbers. They just were not unique. The indictment says thousands of units displayed false serial numbers and names four of them. The three smuggling counts all concern one, serial number 430834149057 on lot NAR0074, delivered to a company in Lakeland, Florida:

- about 47 units on 15 September 2023
- about 924 units on 10 November 2023
- about 1,008 units on 20 November 2023

The two counterfeit-sale counts add about 84 units delivered to a company in Sanford, Florida, on 10 November and about 504 units to the Lakeland company on 7 December, with the same lot and serial number.

Each of those cartons, checked on its own, carried a plausible lot number and serial number. The fault only appears when cartons are compared: one number printed on every box in a delivery of a thousand.

## The duplication was noticed from inside

The indictment quotes messages showing that the duplicated number did not go unnoticed. On 19 November 2023 one alleged co-conspirator warned Ramancha that identical serial numbers appeared on each unit, writing: "All pharmaceutical drugs in the US must be packaged with unique serial numbers, per the 2018 DSCSA requirements." The same co-conspirator pointed out that a trading partner who identified the problem would be required by law to quarantine the product and file a report with the FDA.

On the same day Ramancha forwarded a warning to several people, including the co-conspirator who had raised the problem: whoever they dealt with should be "under NDA" and should not make "any headache going to fda". The next day, the 1,008 units with the same serial number were shipped to Lakeland.

Earlier that month, on 1 November, another alleged co-conspirator had warned that the warehouse storing the product was being audited by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), whose distributor accreditation includes an inspection of DSCSA compliance. The instruction was: "do not deliver the 5 cases until NABP is gone on Friday afternoon." Ramancha replied: "I am on it." An inspection looks at a warehouse while the inspector is on site, and according to the indictment the deliveries were timed around the visit.

## A public warning, and an order for 60,000 more

In December 2023 the FDA seized some of the product from US warehouses. On 21 December it published a public warning about counterfeit Ozempic in the US drug supply chain, naming lot NAR0074 and serial number 430834149057, the number on the Lakeland shipments.

That same day, according to the indictment, Ramancha sent images of the FDA warning to contacts linked to the Sanford buyer. One of them asked whether it would affect a pending order for 60,000 more units of Ozempic. Ramancha answered: "Not at all." On 28 March 2024 Ramancha allegedly arranged the delivery of about 11,000 units of counterfeit Ozempic to a warehouse in Ohio.

A published serial number protects only the people who compare it against the cartons on their own shelves. The FDA warning named one number; the indictment lists four.

## Later fakes carried a real lot number

The FDA has updated its warning twice since, for different lots, and has not connected those to this case. In April 2025 it seized counterfeit pens labelled with lot PAR0362 and serial numbers beginning 51746517. In December 2025 it warned about counterfeit pens labelled with lot PAR1229, a lot number that also exists on authentic Ozempic: patients who received PAR1229 through Novo Nordisk's Patient Assistance Program were told to keep using it.

To tell those fakes apart, the FDA pointed to where the "EXP/LOT" text is printed. On the counterfeit it sits to the left of the expiry date and lot number; on the authentic pen it sits above them. Once a counterfeit carries a lot number that genuinely exists, the printed identifiers no longer separate real from fake, and the difference comes down to label layout.

## Uniqueness can only be checked across the supply chain

A serial number that is supposed to be unique cannot demonstrate that on its own. Somebody has to see it alongside the other sightings of the same number. A pharmacist scanning one carton sees a well-formed number. A warehouse receiving 1,008 cartons with the same number can spot the problem only if someone looks at the delivery as a whole. In this case, according to the indictment, the person who spotted it was inside the scheme, and the shipments continued.

In August we wrote about [genuine Keytruda vials refilled in India](https://eonpass.com/blog/counterfeit-keytruda-real-vials-tracing), where every code on the package was real. The Ozempic case runs the other way: the serial number was fake, but nothing about any single carton gave that away.

## The question worth asking

The FDA's warning gave everyone in the chain one number to look for. The harder question for a wholesaler, a 3PL or a pharmacy chain is about numbers nobody has published. If the same serial number appeared twice in your receiving records this month, or a thousand times in one delivery, would anything flag it, and who would find out first?

## References

- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, [Two Indian Nationals Charged in Connection with Transnational Counterfeit Ozempic Scheme](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-indian-nationals-charged-connection-transnational-counterfeit-ozempic-scheme), 29 September 2026
- U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, [United States v. Swapnadip Roy and Vicky Ramancha](https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-vns/case/united-states-v-swapnadip-roy-and-vicky-ramancha), case page
- U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, [Indictment, United States v. Roy and Ramancha](https://www.justice.gov/criminal/media/1452431/dl?inline) (PDF)
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, [FDA warns consumers not to use counterfeit Ozempic (semaglutide) found in U.S. drug supply chain](https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-alerts-and-statements/fda-warns-consumers-not-use-counterfeit-ozempic-semaglutide-found-us-drug-supply-chain), updated 5 December 2025
- Reuters (via Investing.com), [Two Indian nationals indicted in counterfeit Ozempic smuggling scheme, Justice Department says](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/two-indian-nationals-indicted-in-counterfeit-ozempic-smuggling-scheme-justice-department-says-4923710), 29 September 2026

*An indictment is an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.*

*Image: an authentic Ozempic carton in a pharmacy. Photo by Chemist4U ([www.chemist-4-u.com](https://www.chemist-4-u.com)), [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ozempic_Semaglutide_0.5mg.jpg).*

## Source

- [*U.S. Department of Justice*: Two Indian Nationals Charged in Connection with Transnational Counterfeit Ozempic Scheme](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-indian-nationals-charged-connection-transnational-counterfeit-ozempic-scheme)

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