The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has shut a drug market along Douglas Road, Owerri, the Imo state capital for violating the regulations guiding the handling of pharmaceutical products and sale of medicines.
The council also sealed off nineteen pharmacies and 434 Patent and Proprietary Medicines Vendors (PPMV) otherwise known as patent medicine shops in the state.
Addressing a press conference in Owerri Friday, the director of inspection and monitoring of the council, Pharm. Anthonia Aruya, disclosed that nine arrests were made during the enforcement exercise of the council which started in the state since June 29, 2020.
She said, “A major observed non-compliance is the fact that despite the federal government’s explicit policy direction and the PCN’s guidance to stakeholders on relocation of markets into regulated centres (Coordinated Wholesale Centres), a new drug market was discovered recently set up in this state. The PCN has sealed that market preparatory for evacuation”.
According to her, the council had visited 557 premises that comprised 68 pharmacies as well as 489 patent medicine shops.
Aruya disclosed that apart from those that were sealed off, ten pharmacies and one patent medicine shop were issued with compliance directives for poor handling of controlled drugs as well as sale and dispensing of ethical drugs without supervision of the pharmacists.
She advised the public to look out for the Pharmacists annual license to practice and the premises certificates which should be conspicuously displayed and the license of the patent medicine shops to avoid patronising quacks.
She insisted that medicines sold in unregistered outlets cannot be guaranteed to have efficacy, quality and safety as those sold in regulated facilities.
According to her, “Medicines are to be sold in highly regulated environment. A situation where people wake up in the morning and start selling medicines without recourse to regulations guiding the practice is highly unacceptable to the federal government, particularly when we understand that drugs are poisons and must be used strictly as directed to avoid deleterious effects.”
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