Is HAB Pharmaceuticals Legit? The Maker Behind Modvigil and Artvigil

Written by Dr. Marcus Bennett · Medically reviewed by Dr. Elena Marquez, MD · Fact-checked October 2026 · How we review

When people ask whether HAB Pharmaceuticals is legit, they're usually holding an order page for Modvigil or Artvigil and wondering if the name on the strip means anything. It's a fair worry. Most buyers have heard of Sun Pharma, the company behind Modalert and Waklert, but HAB is a much quieter name outside India.

So we went through what's actually public: Indian company records, HAB's own site and trade listings, India's drug-quality alerts, a US FDA warning letter that mentions the HAB name, and a 2025 news story out of Singapore. We haven't visited HAB's factories or lab-tested its tablets, and this isn't medical advice. We earn a commission if you buy through our Afinil links, at no extra cost to you, and that doesn't change what we report below.

The short answer

• The company is real. HAB Pharmaceuticals and Research Limited is a registered, active public company headquartered in Mumbai, with factories in Dehradun and the Mumbai area.
• It is licensed to make armodafinil. HAB told the Times of India in 2025 that it makes armodafinil under a licence from the Uttarakhand state drug regulator and that its plants are inspected by Indian authorities.
• Its record isn't spotless. Nine HAB batches of other medicines failed Indian government lab tests between 2019 and early 2026. That's worth knowing, though none involved modafinil or armodafinil.
• The export chain is the weak link. HAB says it doesn't export armodafinil at all. If you buy Artvigil from an overseas vendor, nobody, including us, can tell you exactly how that strip left India.
• US law doesn't change with the maker. Modvigil and Artvigil are not FDA-approved, and both drugs need a US prescription.

In other words, "HAB is a legitimate manufacturer" and "this particular online order is legitimate" are two different claims. The first is well supported. The second depends on the vendor.

Who HAB Pharmaceuticals is

Registration and size

Indian corporate records, as summarised by the company-data site The Company Check, list HAB Pharmaceuticals and Research Limited as an active public limited company incorporated on January 22, 1997, registered in Mumbai under CIN U99999MH1997PLC105340. Its registered office is at Peninsula Business Park in Lower Parel, the same address HAB gives on its own website. The same summary puts its revenue for the 2025 financial year at about ₹449 crore. That figure comes from a third-party aggregator rather than an audited report we read ourselves, so treat it as a rough size guide, not a precise number.

HAB's website says the HAB Pharma brand began in 1980, before the current company was incorporated. It claims more than 500 employees, around 600 products, and three manufacturing units: two in Dehradun and one in Mumbai. Those are the company's own numbers.

What it makes

Modafinil is a tiny slice of HAB's business. Its trade listing on CPHI, the pharmaceutical industry marketplace, describes a broad generics range: beta-lactam antibiotic injections, tablets and capsules across heart, diabetes, pain and nervous-system drugs, eye and ear drops, creams and aerosol sprays. The listing says HAB holds WHO-GMP certification (the World Health Organization's good manufacturing practice standard used for many export markets), runs plants at Vasai near Mumbai and at Dehradun, and sells in more than 25 countries.

For cheapmoda readers, the products that matter are:

• Modvigil 200 mg, a modafinil tablet. Afinil's listing names HAB Pharma as the maker.
• Artvigil 150 mg and Artvigil 250 mg, armodafinil tablets, also listed under HAB.

We've reviewed both armodafinil strengths separately in our Artvigil 150 review and Artvigil 250 mg review, and Modvigil's place against Sun Pharma's tablet in Modvigil vs Modalert.

The quality record

India's "not of standard quality" alerts

India's central drug regulator, CDSCO, publishes monthly lists of drug batches that state or central government labs have found "not of standard quality" (NSQ). An independent tracker that compiles those alerts lists nine HAB batches flagged between May 2019 and February 2026. They covered a mix of everyday generics, and the most recent was flagged in February 2026. An NSQ finding can mean anything from the wrong amount of active drug to a tablet that doesn't dissolve or weigh as it should.

How should you read that? Carefully, in both directions.

• Each NSQ finding applies to one batch, not to a whole product line or factory.
• Large Indian generics makers show up on these lists regularly. Nine batches over about seven years, from a company that says it sells around 600 products, isn't unusual on its own.
• But these are exactly the kinds of problems a buyer can't see. You can't tell from looking at a tablet whether it holds 200 mg or 170 mg.
• None of the flagged batches were modafinil or armodafinil. We found no public NSQ alert for Modvigil or Artvigil.

The FDA warning letter that mentions HAB

Search HAB's name together with "FDA" and you'll find a 2018 warning letter. It wasn't addressed to HAB. The FDA sent it to an online pharmacy network, PharmacyAffiliates.org, for selling unapproved and misbranded opioids to US customers. One example was tramadol marketed as "Ultram" and described as "manufactured by Hab Pharma". The FDA pointed out that no approved application covered that product.

The lesson isn't that HAB did something wrong in that letter. It's that HAB-labelled medicines circulate through grey-market websites selling to Americans, and the FDA treats those products as unapproved, regardless of who made the tablets.

The Singapore Artvigil case

In early 2025, Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA) warned the public after nine people were hospitalised with serious skin reactions after taking armodafinil between February 2024 and February 2025. According to the Times of India's reporting, the people involved got the tablets from street sellers or friends, not from a doctor, and armodafinil isn't registered in Singapore at all. The HSA's warning showed photos of Artvigil 150 and Artvigil 250 strips, and the newspaper found that the printing named HAB's plant in the Selaqui industrial area of Dehradun.

When the newspaper asked HAB about it, a senior manager gave a written response with three main points:

1. HAB makes armodafinil under a valid licence from the Uttarakhand state drug regulator, and its facilities are inspected by Indian regulators.
2. HAB says it does not export armodafinil to any country, including Singapore, and sells it only within India through licensed distributors, on prescription.
3. The HSA had not issued any complaint or action against HAB, and the company put the cases down to unregulated sales.

Rare but serious skin reactions, including Stevens-Johnson syndrome, are a known risk of armodafinil and are listed on the US labels for both modafinil and armodafinil. That's one reason these drugs are prescription-only.

Why this matters if you buy online

If HAB is telling the truth that it doesn't export armodafinil, then every Artvigil strip sold by an overseas vendor got out of India some other way: bought from Indian distributors and re-shipped, or something worse. We can't verify which. We're not saying any particular vendor's stock is fake. We're saying the manufacturer's name doesn't follow the product through that chain, so you can't lean on "HAB is legit" as proof your tablets are.

What Afinil's HAB listings say, and what they get wrong

We checked Afinil's Modvigil 200 mg and Artvigil 150 mg pages on October 28, 2026.

Both sit on Afinil's cheaper price ladder, which is why HAB's brands tend to be the budget pick there. Afinil also sells a Modvigil and Artvigil budget combo pack.

A few claims on those pages don't hold up:

• "Approval from the FDA." The Artvigil page says the drug has FDA approval. The FDA approved brand Nuvigil and US generic armodafinil, not HAB's Indian tablet.
• Insomnia. The Modvigil page lists insomnia among the conditions it treats. Modafinil keeps people awake, and insomnia is one of its common side effects, not something it's approved to treat.
• "99.9% legal" importing. Afinil's pages suggest importing for personal use is fine in the US. In the US, modafinil is Schedule IV, and importing it without a prescription isn't a legal route.
• Customs labelling. Afinil says it labels parcels as health supplements. That's a statement about packaging, not about legality, and it's not something we'd count in a seller's favour.

These are problems with store copy, not proof that the tablets are bad. But they're a good reason to read vendor pages sceptically. Our review of Afinil as a vendor and its reshipment policy cover the store side in more detail.

How HAB compares with the other big Indian makers

Buyers usually weigh HAB against three other names.

• Sun Pharma (Modalert, Waklert) is India's largest drugmaker and the benchmark for this category. Its brands usually cost a bit more than HAB's at Afinil.
• Centurion Laboratories (Modavinil, Armodavinil) is another established maker with a full Afinil range.
• ModaXL and ArmodaXL are the brands Afinil promotes as its own line.

HAB's selling point is price. Modvigil and Artvigil sit on Afinil's cheapest price ladder, which matters most in bulk. HAB is a mid-sized company next to Sun, with a public quality record that's mixed but not alarming, and it's the only one of these makers we found named in a recent overseas health warning, though that warning was about street sales, not a defect.

None of these Indian brands is an FDA-approved product, so the choice between them is about maker, price and how much you trust the seller.

How to check a HAB product you've ordered

You can't test a tablet's strength at home, but you can screen out the obvious problems.

1. Read the strip. It should name HAB Pharmaceuticals and Research Ltd and a factory address, and show a batch number, manufacture date and expiry date. Smudged, missing or mismatched details are a red flag.
2. Compare with what you ordered. The brand, strength and tablet count should match your order exactly.
3. Be wary of prices far below everyone else. Afinil's budget ladder is already about as low as established vendors go. A deal much cheaper than that deserves suspicion.
4. Keep your records. Hold on to the order email and photos of the packaging in case you need a reship or refund.
5. Talk to a prescriber. Especially before starting armodafinil, given the skin-reaction warning on the label.

A made-up example: a buyer gets a strip marked Modvigil with no batch number and a misspelled company name. Whatever the vendor says, that strip shouldn't be taken. Contact the seller and stop there.

Safety, briefly

The US labels for modafinil (Provigil) and armodafinil (Nuvigil) list headache, nausea, nervousness and trouble sleeping among the common side effects, and warn about rare serious rashes, allergic reactions and psychiatric symptoms. Stop and get urgent care for any rash, blistering, mouth sores or swelling. Both drugs can make hormonal birth control less effective. Our medical disclaimer applies to everything here.

The legal part

In the US, modafinil and armodafinil are Schedule IV controlled substances. With a prescription, you can fill FDA-approved generics at a US pharmacy, often cheaply. Buying Modvigil or Artvigil from an overseas vendor without a prescription isn't a legal route, whatever the store page says, and customs can seize the parcel. If you don't have a prescriber yet, start with our guide to getting a prescription through an online doctor. Our legal notes cover the US rules.

Verdict

HAB Pharmaceuticals is a legitimate, licensed Indian manufacturer with decades of history, real factories and a large generics catalogue. Its quality record includes a handful of failed batches of other drugs, which is worth knowing but not unusual for its size, and nothing on record involves modafinil or armodafinil.

The bigger question is the route between HAB's factory and your mailbox. HAB says it doesn't export armodafinil, so overseas Artvigil comes through channels the maker doesn't vouch for. If you're weighing Modvigil or Artvigil on price, pick an established vendor with written reship and refund terms, check every strip, and keep a prescriber involved, because in the US these are prescription drugs no matter who made them.

FAQ

Is HAB Pharmaceuticals a real company?

Yes. Indian company records list HAB Pharmaceuticals and Research Limited as an active public limited company in Mumbai, incorporated on January 22, 1997. Its own website dates the HAB Pharma brand to 1980.

What does HAB Pharma make?

A broad range of generics, from antibiotics and heart drugs to sprays and eye drops. Online buyers know it for Modvigil (modafinil 200 mg) and Artvigil (armodafinil 150 mg and 250 mg).

Is Modvigil made by HAB Pharmaceuticals?

Afinil's Modvigil listing names HAB Pharma as the maker, and so do other export vendors. HAB's own public site doesn't list every brand, so we rely on the seller listings and strip printing for that link.

Has HAB Pharma had quality problems?

Indian government labs declared 9 HAB batches "not of standard quality" between May 2019 and February 2026, according to a tracker of CDSCO alerts. None of them were modafinil or armodafinil, and each finding applies to one batch only.

Does HAB export Artvigil?

In a March 2025 statement to the Times of India, a HAB manager said the company does not export armodafinil to any country and sells it only in India through licensed distributors on prescription. Export vendors still list Artvigil, and we can't verify how they source it.

Is HAB Pharma FDA approved?

We found no FDA-approved HAB product for modafinil or armodafinil. Modvigil and Artvigil are Indian-market generics, not FDA-approved drugs, whatever some store pages say.

Is it legal to buy HAB products in the US?

Modafinil and armodafinil are Schedule IV controlled substances in the US. Importing Modvigil or Artvigil without a prescription isn't a legal route, and customs can seize the parcel.

How much does Modvigil cost?

On October 28, 2026 Afinil listed Modvigil 200 mg on its budget price ladder, from $2.99 a tablet for 10 down to $0.89 a tablet for 1,000. Prices change, so check the live page.