Liberia Medicines & Health Products Regulatory Authority

22/09/2025

It's World Pharmacists Day, and we are excited to honour and celebrate the invaluable contributions of PHARMACISTS on our health team! We are calling on all Pharmacists to join hands with our colleagues from across the globe 🌎 to make this year activities successful.

Happy World Pharmacists Day to all Pharmacists!

02/09/2025

Stakeholders Conference on Pharmacovigilance Clinical Trials
Theme: "Medicine Safety Monitoring and Clinical Trials Oversight in Emerging Regulatory System"

01/09/2025

Liberia Medicines & Health Products Regulatory Authority Stakeholders Conference on Pharmacovigilance & Clinical Trials
Theme: "Medicine Safety Monitoring and Clinical Trials Oversight in Emerging Regulatory System"

01/09/2025

27/08/2025

LMHRA’s ICT Chief Trains In Botswana To Benchmark Trade Portal Initiative

In a bid to strengthen Liberia’s trade infrastructure and boost regional competitiveness, Mr. Emmanuel T. Grimes, Manager for Information Communications Technology (ICT) at the Liberia Medicines & Health Products Regulatory Authority (LMHRA), is undergoing an intensive training program at the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC). Mr. Grimes is part of a high-level Liberian delegation, including a team of ICT experts, under the guidance of Hon. Wilmot Albertoe Reeves, Deputy Minister of Commerce and Trade of Liberia’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The Liberian delegation’s mission is to benchmark Botswana’s renowned Trade Portal, a comprehensive, one-stop platform that delivers transparent, up-to-date, and accessible trade regulatory information for African countries. By studying Botswana’s model, Liberia aims to develop its own Trade Information Portal—a critical tool designed to streamline trade processes, enhance transparency, and bolster regional competitiveness.
“Our objective is to learn from Botswana’s established system and adapt best practices to our own context,” said a Liberian official familiar with the program. “The Trade Information Portal will be central to reducing bureaucratic friction, improving efficiency for traders, and attracting investment in Liberia.”
The training entails: portal architecture and governance; how Botswana’s portal is structured, maintained, and updated to ensure accuracy and reliability; data integration and interoperability; methods for aggregating diverse regulatory information from multiple government agencies into a single access point.
Also, it seeks to create a user experience and accessibility; a user-friendly interface that serves importers, exporters, and regulatory personnel alike. Regulatory transparency that creates mechanisms that ensure timely updates, clear guidance, and responsiveness to stakeholder queries.
BITC is a government-supported entity dedicated to promoting investment, facilitating trade, and fostering the growth of Botswana’s business sector. It operates as a one-stop shop for investors and exporters, offering information, guidance, and services to streamline business activities within Botswana. The Centre also provides essential details on incentives, regulatory requirements, and market opportunities.
BITC’s approach has earned recognition for its ability to consolidate disparate regulatory information into a single, accessible portal. The Centre’s emphasis on transparency, efficiency, and customer-centric service delivery has made it a model for other African nations seeking to improve trade facilitation.
Liberia has long sought to strengthen its trade facilitation framework as part of broader efforts to diversify the economy and integrate deeper into the West African and African continental markets. The ongoing Trade Information Portal project is a cornerstone of this strategy, aligning with regional initiatives to improve trade data accessibility and governance.
Following the Botswana visit, Liberian officials plan to document best practices, adapt them to the Liberian context, and develop a prototype Trade Information Portal. Stakeholders from government ministries, the private sector, and development partners are expected to contribute to the design, content, and governance of the platform.
BITC Chairman and relevant Botswana government officials have reaffirmed their commitment to fostering bilateral collaboration and knowledge exchange to strengthen trade facilitation across Africa.
“The exchange with BITC will help Liberia build a robust, transparent, and user-friendly Trade Information Portal that serves the needs of traders and regulators alike,” said a member of the Liberian delegation.
“BITC remains dedicated to promoting investment and trade across Botswana and beyond, and we are pleased to share our experiences to support Africa’s collective goals,” noted a BITC spokesperson.

26/08/2025

Countdown: Five days to Liberia's First International Stakeholders Conference on Pharmacovigilance and Clinical Trials

THEME: "Medicine Safety Monitoring and Clinical Trial Oversight in an Emerging Regulatory System"

DATE: September 1–5, 2025
VENUE: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex, Monrovia, Liberia

26/08/2025

LMHRA Commences Construction for Waste Disposal Facility.

The Liberia Medicine & Health Products Regulatory Authority, (LMHRA) has officially commenced the construction of a state-of-the-art waste disposal facility and office spaces in Careysburg, Lower Margibi County. The project, aims to enhance the agency’s capacity to combat the circulation of expired, fake, and substandard medicines across Liberia.

During a site tour held on Monday, August 18, 2025, in Koko Town, the Technical Project Manager of Real Estate & Construction Corporation, Kimpton Alan confirmed that the facility will include modern incinerators and fully furnished office spaces.

Outlining the importance of the project, LMHRA program Coordinator, Dr. S. Michael Chu Nepay emphasized the strategic importance of the new complex. “This project will significantly expand our operational space and streamline the activities of our Waste Management Unit,” he said. “The unit is mandated to collect and safely dispose of all expired and falsified medical products on the Liberian market,”

Dr. Nepay described the groundbreaking as a major milestone in LMHRA’s ongoing efforts to safeguard public health and ensure the integrity of pharmaceuticals in the country. He disclosed that the initiative is fully funded by the Global Fund, with implementation support from Plan-Liberia.

The commencement of the project marked a mile stone for the entity quest to fight falsified, and sub-standard medicines on the market.

Meanwhile, the construction is expected to be completed within three months.

07/08/2025

We at the LMHRA say BIG NO to ILLICIT DRUGS!

06/08/2025

Tune into ELBC Radio 99.9fm BUMPER SHOW this evening

05/08/2025

Watch out for Liberia's First Stakeholders Conference on Pharmacovigilance and Clinical Trials

Theme: " Medicine Safety Monitoring and Clinical Trial Oversight in Emerging Regulatory System"

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex
Monrovia, Liberia
September 1-5th, 2025

01/08/2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LMHRA Clarifies Media Reports of Counterfeit Medication

PRESS RELEASE

Monrovia, Liberia—July 31, 2025: The attention of the Board of Directors and the Management of the Liberia Medicines & Health Products Regulatory Authority (LMHRA) has been drawn to recent trending media reports on a medical event that occurred at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in January 2025 and the resultant regulatory response of the LMHRA. While it is not standard practice of the LMHRA to litigate sensitive health issues in the media, it is expedient in this instance to lend some clarity on this matter.

Following the death of a 16-year-old boy at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in January 2025 and the subsequent release of the investigative report by the Liberia Medical & Dental Council (LMDC), the LMHRA launched an independent investigation into the medical products that were used in order to identify the cause(s) of the Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR), assess the regulatory status of the drugs involved, and proffer measures to prevent future occurrences.

The findings of the LMHRA’s independent investigation revealed that:

• The Anesthesia Bupivacaine spinal injection with the tradename Marcaine® Spinal Heavy (0.5%), in addition to five other medications, was administered to the patient

• Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR), which the patient experienced, is not uncommon in medical practice

• Attribution of ADR to a drug after a concoction of medications has been administered is rather inconclusive in the absence of further medical investigation, including testing.

• All of the medications administered during the procedure met the basic regulatory requirements as stipulated by the LMHRA with the exception of the Anesthesia Bupivacaine spinal injection

• The regulatory violation of the Bupivacaine spinal injection was that the labeling was done in a foreign language. This contravenes Chapter 2, section 1, number 3 of the regulations for the labelling of medicines and health products. It states that “all information contained on the label of medicines and health products must be in English.”

• In 2022, G2 Pharmacy applied to the LMHRA for the registration of Bupivacaine spinal injection and after the drug dossier review, were granted registration for a period of three years and has since been importing the drug into the country.

• The investigative team, on inspection of the pharmacy of St. Joseph Catholic Hospital noted that 24 packs of the anesthesia drug, Bupivacaine spinal injection, was still in stock and all had inscriptions in a foreign language.

After a review of the findings, the LMHRA Management Team carried out the following Regulatory actions:

• The remaining 24 packs of Bupivacaine spinal injection found in the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital Pharmacy were removed from the premise and taken to the LMHRA’s Central Office.

• The Regulatory lapses of G2 pharmacy relative to the labeling of the Bupivacaine spinal injection in a foreign language were referred to the LMHRA Hearing Board for further investigation

• The hearing Board, having done its investigation into the matter, recommended that G2 Pharmacy be fined the sum of US$10,000.00 (Ten thousand US Dollars) to which the G2 Pharmacy took an appeal. Having reviewed the Act of 2010 and the “Regulations on Mislabeling” and recognized that the recommended fine was far beyond the maximum fine for the offense, the management of LMHRA approved the appealed fine of $1,500.00 which the G2 Pharmacy has since paid.

• The Board of Directors also recommended that the LMHRA management team carry out the following actions:
o Conduct Post Market Surveillance to remove all Bupivacaine Spinal Injection in circulation.
o Plan and conduct refresher trainings for ADR reporters in health facilities
o Develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) relative to the importation of drugs in small quantities (orphan products)
o Develop an information dissemination system that will promptly provide information on ADR to the general public.

The LMHRA assures the general public that it remains committed to its core mandate of protecting the health of the Liberian population by ensuring that only quality medicines and health products are in circulation in Liberia.

Signed: Momoh B. Siryon,
Communications Manager, LMHRA