The Federal Government yesterday disclosed that it sealed 358 pharmacies and patent medicine shops in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in four days.
It stated that the sealing of the pharmaceutical premises for various offences, including operating without registration, fake licenses, dispensing ethical products without the supervision of a pharmacist, poor storage and sanitation, etc, was in line with its mission to ensure that medicines consumed by Nigerians are safe, effective and of good quality as they transit from one level of the distribution chain to another.
The Registrar of the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN), Pharm Ibrahim Ahmed, who made this known in Abuja while addressing journalists, revealed that four patent medicine vendors have been arrested and are being prosecuted.
He further disclosed that since 2018 till date, its national enforcement team had visited more than thirty thousand pharmaceutical premises and sealed more than twenty thousand across the country.
He said: “The proliferation of unregistered medicine shops has remained a major obstacle in the actualization of the National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG). Many of these premises involved in sale of medicines to the public do not have appropriate storage facilities thereby exposing medicines to harsh environmental factors like high temperature and humidity.
“At the end of the current enforcement exercise in FCT (between Monday to Thursday this week), a total of five hundred and eighty four (584) premises were visited. This comprises one hundred and eighty five (185) Pharmacies and three hundred and ninety nine (399) Patent Medicine Shops.
“A total of three hundred and fifty eight (358) premises made up of ninety (90) Pharmacies and two hundred and sixty eight (268) Patent Medicine Shops were sealed for various offences, some of which include operating without registration with Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, failure to renew premises license, dispensing ethical products without the supervision of a pharmacist, poor storage and sanitary conditions among others, while five (5) Pharmacies and Patent Medicine Shops were issued compliance directives.
“Four patent medicine vendors were arrested. Three of them were arrested for breaking PCN seals and one for displaying fake patent medicines vendor licence in his shop.
“Since my assumption of duty as Registrar on 10 June 2022, I have taken a look at the entire operations of the PCN and I intend to strengthen the national enforcement team and also reposition the Pharmaceutical Inspection and Patent and Proprietary Medicines Vendors Committees in the states to enhance monitoring, inspection and enforcement nationwide. This current enforcement in FCT is part of this effort.
“Similarly, efforts are ongoing to ensure that all medicine dealers in open drug markets in the country are relocated to Coordinated Wholesale Centres (CWCs) in line with the National Drug Distribution Guidelines.”
Regarding ensuring that foreign trained pharmacists coming into the country to practise are competent, Ahmed said: “The assessment of foreign trained pharmacists is supposed to be a source of concern for regulatory bodies. However, in PCN, we don’t only wait for them, especially countries that bring in a lot of graduates from their schools down to Nigeria. We go to those countries; ensure that we assess the training in those institutions. Any institution that we are not satisfied with, we will not admit their student into our own programme.
