As part of its efforts to safeguard innocent people who patronise the various pharmaceutical stores from fake, expired and banned drugs, a total of 571 premises where drugs are sold in Bauchi state have been sealed by the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN).
The disclosure was made on Thursday during a Press briefing by the PCN at the Bauchi office presented by Pharmacist Stephen Esumobi, the Director Enforcement of PCN.
He explained that the Premises sealed included: 37 pharmacies stores, 144 patent medicine shops and 390 illegal medicine shops.
Stephen Esumobi, said that, “PCN is the Federal government parastatals charged with the responsibility of regulating and controlling the education, training and practice of pharmacy in all its aspects and ramifications in line with the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria Establishment Act, 2022.
“For medicine to deliver desired therapeutic outcomes, it is important that they remain safe, effective, of good quality throughout their lifespan.
“One of the factors that affects stability and therapeutic benefits of medicine, is good storage facilities with appropriate temperature and humidity.”
He also said that poor quality medicines have been shown in several studies to be responsible for a large percentage cases of treatment failures and avoidable deaths.
According to him, “In 2022, the PCN enforcement team visited Bauchi State and some medicine outlets were sealed for operating in breach of our laws and regulations.”
He also stated that, the Council took steps to correct anomalies observed in those premises.
“Other breaches committed by owners of pharmaceutical premises include operating without registration and non renewal of premises certificates, poor documentation, patent medicine vendors stocking medicine outside the approved drug list and carrying out clinical services, wholesalers engaging in retail, pharmacist operating without a superintendent pharmacist.
“Illegal medicine dealers were also found to engage in the sale of large quantities of substances of abuse to members of the Public, especially within the state capital thus aggravating the social and the security challenges emanating from the illicit use of these medicines.”
Stephen Esumobi said that the Council uncovered some smartphone dealers who sell some of the hard substances within the Bauchi capital.
He stressed that, “There are lots of work to do. The level of this prevalence is very disturbing.”
According to him, the Council visited Bauchi, Tafawa Balewa, Darazo, Ganjuwa, Alkaleri, Dambam, Kirfi, Ningi, Toro and Dass local government areas.
According to him, “At the end of the exercise, a total of 762 premises were visited. This is made up of 88 pharmacies, 284 patent medicine shops and 390 Illegal premises.”
He lamented that the rate of hard substances on sale is in the state alarming, pledging that the Council would work with other relevant agencies to break the network of circulation.
He directed the state and zonal offices of the PCN to continue to monitor all pharmaceutical premises within the state to ensure that they operate in line with our laws and regulations.
He assured that PCN will continue to perform its regulatory functions to ensure that Nigeria is safe from bad and sharp negative practices of unscrupulous people who are bent of damaging the reputation of PCN.
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