358 illegal premises sealed in FCT within 4 days – PCN

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) sealed 358 illegal premises in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between Monday and Thursday this week.

Registrar of the council, Pharmacist Ibrahim Babashehu Ahmed, disclosed this Friday while briefing newsmen in Abuja.

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He said 90 pharmacies, and 268 patent medicine shops were sealed out of a total of 584 premises visited during the enforcement exercise.

He said they were sealed for various offences ranging from operating without registration with the  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.

Ahmed said four patent medicine vendors were arrested, adding “Three of them were arrested for breaking PCN seals and one for displaying fake patent medicines vendor licence in his shop.” 

The registrar said the proliferation of unregistered medicine shops has remained a major obstacle in the actualization of the National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG).

He said another challenge in the effort of PCN to carry out its mandate in line with the NDDG is the activities of open drug markets. He said the medicine dealers in these markets are unregulated and the activities within the markets are totally in breach of regulations.

According to him, a large percentage of products within these markets are not fit for human consumption due to poor handling. “Since some of these products find their way into our health systems, the activities of these markets constitute a threat to public health,” he said.

He said PCN stepped up enforcement activities across the country to address the challenges , and from 2018 till date, the national enforcement team has visited more than 30, 000 pharmaceutical premises and sealed more than 20,000.