The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has faulted pharmaceutical companies and marketing authorisation holders for the delayed update of its Greenbook, a public database of approved medical products in Nigeria.
The agency raised the concern during the opening session of a two-day sensitisation and awareness workshop held in Lagos on Monday.
Representing the Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director of Post-Marketing Surveillance, Mr Fraden Bitrus, stated that several registered pharmaceutical products remain absent from the Greenbook due to the failure of companies to submit necessary post-registration data.
“Some products are fully registered with NAFDAC but are yet to appear on the Greenbook platform because marketing authorisation holders have not provided the complete required information,” Bitrus said. He urged manufacturers and importers to ensure immediate compliance, warning that the current delay undermines public access to essential information on approved medicines and weakens the agency’s regulatory transparency.
He further decried the growing threat of counterfeit medical products in the country, describing them as a deliberate act of greed and inhumanity. “Counterfeit medicines are not accidental—they are the product of greed by unscrupulous businessmen and their international partners, who endanger public health purely for profit,” Bitrus stated.
Highlighting NAFDAC’s ongoing efforts to combat fake drugs, he listed initiatives such as regular consumer safety alerts, daily publications in national newspapers, the Shine Your Eye programme on national television, and the deployment of digital verification tools like TrueScan and Media Lab.
Bitrus also spoke on the recently introduced Pharmaceutical Products Flexibility Regulation 2024, which mandates all regulated products—whether manufactured locally, imported, exported or distributed in Nigeria—to carry a unique identifier. This new system, he explained, will enhance full traceability across the pharmaceutical supply chain, boosting consumer safety and regulatory oversight.
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