By Kemi Akintokun

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has urged marketing authorisation holders to submit their products to the agency for visibility on the agency’s Greenbook app.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made the call at a two-day Sensitisation and Awareness Workshop on Greenbook, Traceability Project and Paediatric Policy in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Greenbook app was officially inaugurated by the agency in 2024, to help Nigerians verify the authenticity of medical products and fight against counterfeit drugs.

Adeyeye, represented by NAFDAC’s Director of Post-Marketing Surveillance, Mr Bitrus Fraden, said the submission would help the agency to update its database on the Greenbook App.

She said: “We are still waiting for many marketing authorisation holders to submit more information about their products.

“Some have been slow in doing this, which is why a product may be registered but not yet visible on the Greenbook.

“We are calling on all manufacturers and marketing authorisation holders to provide the required information so that consumers can identify fake or substandard products through the Greenbook app”.

The D-G said the workshop was organised to sensitise stakeholders to its Greenbook, traceability project and paediatric policy to ensure that both regulator and the regulated were on the same page in combating fake medical products.

“Traceability is a legal framework for tracking products along the supply chain, while the Paediatric Regulation 2024 is designed to address the special medical needs of children.

“With this technology, stakeholders can detect and prevent the entry of fake products into the supply chain.”

“Over the years, Nigeria, like in other Low and Middle-Income Countries, has grappled with a man-made evil called substandard and falsified products.

“These products are produced by our greedy businessmen and their international collaborators to get rich or make money, making it the worst inhumanity of man to fellow men,” she said.

She noted that the agency had deployed various measures to combat falsified products which included NAFDAC consumer safety publications, publication of counterfeit products in daily newspapers, the Shine Your Eyes programme on national TV among others.

Adeyeye added that counterfeiters had assumed more sophisticated dimensions to advance their trade, hence the need for the agency to adopt modern technologies and means to mitigate their activities.

The D-G urged all stakeholders in the healthcare space to support the agency’s laudable initiatives to ensure the consumption and usage of only safe, and efficacious medical products for Nigerians.

Also, NAFDAC Coordinator for South-West Zone, Mrs Rose Ajayi, said the workshop was aimed to keep stakeholders abreast of the agency’s policies targeted at combating counterfeit and falsified drugs.

Stakeholders from the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, Nurses, Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists, Nigerian Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria and others were represented at the workshop. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Vivian Ihechu