Over 19,000 Pharmacies, Medicine Shops Closed Down In Five Years — FG

The Federal Government has closed down over 19,000 pharmacies and patent medicines shops across the country in the last five years.

According to the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), in furtherance of its safety and enforcement activities, from 2018 till date, the agency inspected a total of 27,262 facilities for enforcement activities, out of which, 19,059 pharmacies and patent medicine stores were closed down for various unethical practices.

Speaking during a media briefing on the gazetting of the New PCN Act signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, and enforcement activities of the PCN nationwide, the Chairman of the Council, Prof. Ahmed Mora, said: “In every organisation, there will be deviants. That is why we have the investigation panel and disciplinary tribunal, so that we can ensure that those deviants, in terms of our practitioners and their premises that are deviating from the norm, are brought to book.

“The Act acts as a deterrent so that people will not come short of what is expected in terms of minimum standards of practice, especially in pharmacy practice. We are dealing with drugs, which makes the difference between life and death. That is why we must be regulated.

“In manufacturing pharmaceutical products, with the wrong medication, you can kill thousands. We just heard about what is happening in Gambia, about a cough syrup manufactured probably in India. With the cough syrup, children have died. So, we have zero tolerance when it comes to the formulation of pharmaceutical products, which is the exclusive preserve of pharmacists in Nigeria and the world over.”

In his remarks, the Registrar of the PCN, Pharm. Ibrahim Ahmed, said: “After the creation of the enforcement department of the PCN in 2018, we have visited a total of 27,262 facilities for enforcement activities. Out of this, we have closed down a total of 19,059. From among this, 1,780 were premises seen or operating illegally as pharmaceutical premises, while 16,502 were patent medicine shops.

“Over this period, a total number of 110 people were arrested, and are at various stages of prosecution. For this year specifically or within this last quarter, we have been to Oyo, Ogun states, and currently the team is in Kogi state since Monday.

“In Oyo, a total number of 57 pharmacies were sealed, while 335 patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs) shops were sealed, with twelve compliance directives given. In Ogun, we had 25 pharmacies sealed. PPMVs sealed were 317, with twelve compliance directives given. The records from Kogi state are expected to come in at the end of operation on Friday, 07-10-2022.”