Eli Lilly is emailing Indian patients a guide to spot fake Mounjaro. Here's what to look for.

After fake Mounjaro pens were seized in Haryana in April, Eli Lilly's India team started doing something they hadn't done before: emailing patients a visual guide showing exactly how to tell real Mounjaro packaging from counterfeit.

The email, sent through Lilly's Mounjaro Patient Support Programme, includes side-by-side comparison images of authentic and fake cartons. It was sent to patients who contacted Lilly with questions about the authenticity of their pens. The guide uses the 5 mg dose carton as an example but notes that the same differences appear across all dose strengths.

What to check on the front of the carton

Three things stand out on the front panel:

• On authentic cartons, the printed image of the KwikPen is sharp. On the counterfeits seized by Haryana FDA, the pen image was blurry — not dramatically, but enough to notice if you're looking.
• Authentic cartons have spaces on each side of the equals sign in the dosage line (e.g., "5 mg = 0.6 ml"). The fakes were missing those spaces.
• Authentic cartons read "For subcutaneous use only." The counterfeits dropped the "F" and printed "or subcutaneous use only."

What to check on the back

The back panel has a simpler tell: the word "Storage." On genuine Mounjaro cartons, it's printed with a capital S. On the counterfeits, it appeared in lowercase as "storage." Small, but the kind of thing a 3D-printed packaging operation gets wrong.

State drug control departments have also issued circulars identifying specific batch numbers across all dose strengths that have been declared spurious. You can check your batch number against these through GLPCheck's free authenticity check.

What to do if you're concerned

Lilly's email is direct about next steps:

1. Stop using the pen immediately and do not discard it.
2. Call Lilly's toll-free number: 1800-123-0021.
3. Email the Patient Support Programme: lillypsp@hcah.in.

You can also submit photos of your Mounjaro packaging to GLPCheck for a free review. We'll check your box, pen labels, and batch details against known authentic products and get back to you within 72 hours.

Sources: Eli Lilly Mounjaro Patient Support Programme email, 25 May 2026 · Government of Puducherry Department of Drugs Control Circular No. DDC/NSQ/C(45)/2026-04, 20 April 2026