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From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has sealed 378 pharmaceutical premises comprising of 34 pharmacies and 344 patent medicines shop across 14 local government areas of Taraba State.
Pharmacist, Stephen Esumobi, director enforcement for the council, who disclosed this at a press conference in Jalingo at the end of a weeklong inspection exercise, said that 24 compliance notices were also issued for various reasons.
Esumobi said a total of 546 premises were inspected during the exercise, and observed that while there was remarkable improvement in terms of compliance in the state capital, the situation in the rural areas was very bad.
He said that most of the premises were sealed because they were not licensed while others that were licensed were found to be either operating outside their scope or against specified hygiene conditions that would compromise the integrity of drugs they housed.
“After almost a week-long inspection exercise, observations from the field in Taraba State revealed that while there is commendable level of compliance by some stakeholders in the state capital, this cannot be said of stakeholders across the local government areas. So many premises are not registered with the PCN, while a large number of those registered do not bother to renew their licences. Most of the patent medicine vendors were engaged in activities far beyond their scope, and also stocked products outside their approved drug list including ethical medicines and substances of abuse.
“At the end of the exercise, a total of 546 premises were visited. This includes 481 patent and proprietary medicines vendors shops (PPMVS) and 65 pharmacies. Three hundred and seventy eight premises were sealed comprising 34 pharmacies and 344 patent medicines-vendor shops. Twenty-four compliance directives were issued for various offences such as poor sanitary conditions, poor documentation and none display of premises and pharmacists annual licences.
“The public is hereby advised to source all drug needs from registered and currently licensed pharmacies and over-the- counter medicines from registered PPMV shops as drug sold in unregistered outlets cannot be guaranteed to be genuine.”
