The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC) has flagged counterfeit Mabthera 500mg/50ml (rituximab) injections circulating mainly in northern Nigeria, especially Gombe and Kaduna states. Mabthera is known to be used for blood cancers like non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, plus autoimmune diseases.
The batch number N2110A09 doesn’t exist in Roche’s database; fakes show Turkish labeling instead of English, misplaced Braille, wrong tamper seals, odd vial shapes, mismatched stoppers, and faulty seals.
Roche Nigeria investigated complaints from providers after patients bought suspiciously cheap versions (N160,000–N275,000). No chemical tests occurred due to lack of physical samples, but packaging photos confirmed issues. Genuine Mabthera comes from F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), made by Roche Diagnostics GmbH (Germany).
NAFDAC has ordered zonal directors to ramp up surveillance, pull fakes from markets, and urged importers, distributors, retailers, and providers to buy only from licensed sources and check authenticity.
This joins recent alerts: fake Avastin 400mg, Tecentriq 1200mg/20ml, Phesgo 600mg (breast cancer drug); risky MR.7 SUPER male enhancement capsules; recalled Artemether/Lumefantrine suspension; tampered SMA Gold formula in Kaduna (linked to infant illness); and unregistered fake Dostinex 0.5mg tablets (batches GG3470, LG8659, GG2440).
