The pharmacy council
of Nigeria PCN has sealed 577 drug stores in Anambra state.
The Director of Inspection
and Monitoring in PCN, Anthonia Aruya while disclosing this said that a total
of 779 outlets in Awka were visited during the inspection exercise, comprising
191 pharmacies and 500 patent medicine shops, adding that the exercise was
geared towards streamlining the drug distribution value chain to promote the
provision of safe, effective and quality medicines.
According to Anya, the
sealed premises include 96 pharmacies and 481 patent medicine shops, while 19
were issued compliance directives for various offences, ranging from poor
handling of controlled substances, sale and dispensing of ethical/prescription drugs without the
supervision of a pharmacist, unhygienic environment and poor documentation,
among others.
Anya said: “The
Pharmacist Council of Nigeria, along with other regulatory agencies, is in the
process of relocating all open drug markets to coordinated wholesale centers
where they will be properly regulated by the PCN and National Agency for Food,
Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC.”
She warned that
premises seeking to be registered for the reason of providing pharmaceutical
services must be inspected to ensure that they adhere to the principles of good
pharmacy practices (GPP) that met the minimum acceptable standards of practice.
Aruya added that
licences were normally issued to stakeholders based on their training, noting
that medicines, if not properly handled or administered, could be injurious to
the end user.
She also warned that
that premises found selling and dispensing without approval, or selling above
their scope of operation such as dispensing ethical products without the
presence of a Superintendent Pharmacist, or handling of controlled medicines by
non pharmacist, was violating the law and would therefore be sanctioned.
The council was in
Anambra State in continuation of its activities aimed at sanitizing the system
and providing better pharmaceutical services delivery to the people of the
state and the nation at large.
