Soji Ajibola, Ibadan
Pharmacist Council of Nigeria has sealed off 424 illegal patent medicine/ pharmacy stores in 10 out of the 33 local government areas of Oyo State.
PCN’s Director of Inspection and Monitoring, Mrs Anthonia Aruya, disclosed this while addressing newsmen on behalf of its Registrar, N.A.E. Mohammed, at the weekend.
She stated that the enforcement exercise was carried out in 546 premises comprising 98 pharmacies and 448 patent medicine shops.
Aruya explained that affected stores were sealed off for poor handling of controlled substances, sales and dispensing of ethical/prescription drugs without the supervision of a pharmacist, unhygienic environment, poor documentation, among others in the interest of public safety.
According to her, licenses are issued to stakeholders based on their training since medicines, if not properly handled and administered, can be quite injurious to the end users.
She said, “The pharmacist is well trained and experienced to handle all categories of medicines, while the patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMV) on the other hand are only to handle over the counter medicines (OTCs) which have proven safety margin.
“Any premises found selling above their scope of operation such as sale and dispensing of ethical products without the presence of superintendent pharmacists or handling of controlled medicines by non pharmacist is operating in violation of the law.”
The director explained that the state council in continuation of its activities aimed at sanitising the system for better pharmaceutical services delivery to the people and the nation at large, “after the exercise, 546 premises were visited comprising of 98 pharmacies and 448 patent medicine shops.
“A total of 424 premises were sealed comprising 22 pharmacies and 402 patent medicine shops. Twelve premises were issued compliance directive for various offences.”.
The PCN director, therefore, advised Nigerians to ask for registration status of facilities where they access their medicines by requesting for the current licenses issues by the Council from any pharmaceutical outlet to safeguard themselves from patronising quacks.
She urged the affected pharmacies and owners of the patent medicine shops to visit the PCN national headquarters, Abuja or any of the zonal/state offices nationwide for proper guidance on how to set up such facilities by law.
Aruya explained that the Council had been carrying out enforcement activities across the states in fulfilment of its mandate as stated in PCN Act Cap P17, LFN, 2005 and also in line with the National Drug Distribution Guideline of the Federal Government (NDDG).
She said this was geared at streamlining the drug distribution value chain to promote the availability of safe, effective and quality medicines distributed along registered and currently licensed premises.
These, she added include manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, retail, hospital pharmacies and the patent and proprietary medicines vendors’ shops.