The Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) at the weekend said it sealed off 14 pharmacies and 228 patent medicine stalls for offences ranging from dispensing poisons without supervision of a pharmacist and poor storage condition.

 

Other offences include selling above the approved list for patent medicine vendors and non-registration of premises with the PCN.

 

Speaking in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, during a press briefing, the Deputy Director and Head of Enforcement of PCN, Stephen Esumobi, said it was expected that anyone wishing to start a pharmacy or patent medicine shop should apply for location approval. 

 

“When it is approved, the premises will apply for facility inspection to ensure that the structure and personnel are adequate. In Kwara, we discovered that so many premises commenced operations without following the laid down guidelines while many of the premises are located in environments that are not conducive for sale of medicines.

 

 

“Many of them also failed to meet minimum requirements for storage and personnel, thereby exposing members of the public to the dangers of consuming medicines whose quality, safety and efficacy cannot be guaranteed,” Esumobi said.

 

He added that some of those who registered their premises failed to renew their premises certificates with PCN which is mandatory to ensure that registered premises continue to maintain or improve on the standard that made them qualified for licensure.

 

Esumobi however disclosed that the 14 pharmacies that were closed belong to their members who are not allowed to have medicine stalls. He lamented that the number of illegal structures are more in Kwara than any other state in the country.

 

“Most of the shops we sealed off are in Ilorin, Offa, Omun Aran and Oro but majority of them are within the state capital,” he said. 

 

On why the council allowed  non-professionals to open medicine shops, he said there were inadequate pharmacies in the country which was why they were allowed to open medicine stalls with strict instruction of proper registration with the council.

 

By Romoke W. Ahmad

Daily Trust