NO fewer than 57 premises of patent drugs and pharmaceutical stores operating in Taraba state have been sealed off by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) for offenses raging from unauthorised sale of drugs to operating without the needed supervision of a pharmacist.

 

  The leadership of the council who stormed the state yesterday from Abuja, to inspect and monitor pharmacy premises, felt sad that most of the patent medicine stores and pharmacy operating in the state, never deemed it relevant to adhere to the guidelines of operating such stores.

 

  The exercise according to the Director, Inspection and Monitoring Department of PCN, Anthonia Aruya, is aimed at sanitising the drug distribution system in the state.

 

 

  Should any of the owners of the sealed off stores go ahead and remove the seal without the knowledge of the council, Aruya said the council would have any other option than to prosecute such person, stating that “ we are ready to prosecute to the last order whoever remove our seal because it is an offense to break the seal of the Federal Government.”

 

  Noting that the exercise, which would be sustain by the council is, “a new policy direction of government, aimed at providing quality pharmaceutical services to the Nigerian public” she admonished the public on the need to “ purchase their medicines from licensed pharmacies and simple household remedies from licensed patent and property medicine vendor shops.”

 

  According to her “at the end of the exercise, a total number of 66 premises were visited and 57 premises were sealed off for offense ranging from unauthorised sale of medicines, operating without the supervision of a pharmacist.”

by Charles Akpeji