No fewer than 1,321 patent medicine outlets in Sabon Gari open market in Kano were sealed by the National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control in collaboration with the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria on Monday.
According to The PUNCH, the NAFDAC Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Mr. Francis Ononiwu, explained that the closure was part of exercising its mandate to sanitise unwholesome pharmaceutical practices by the dealers.
According to Mr. Ononiwu, over the years, the patent medicine traders have constituted an imminent threat to public health following the distribution of unwholesome pharmaceutical products to unsuspected members of the public.
Despite operating without valid registration or certification by PCN and other regulatory agencies, the NAFDAC officer expressed worry that medicine dealers have perpetrated a chaotic chain of supply, inimical to the efficacy of pharmaceutical products.
He further disclosed that NAFDAC and PCN are mandated to forcefully evict the drug sellers from the Sabon Gari open market and relocate them to Government government-designed Coordinated Wholesale Centre, following the court verdict.
He wanted the dealers to appreciate the positive reason behind their relocation to the coordinated centre, as part of efforts to fight drug abuse in the country.
He said “Following the court judgment that ordered the relocation of the patent medicine dealers to CWC, the NAFDAC and PCN joint enforcement team embarked on the enforcement action between the 17th and 18th of February during which not less than 1,321 outlets were sealed.
“The operations were executed in line with the enforcement and regulatory task of the agencies necessary to sanitize drug distribution in Nigeria and to checkmate the chaotic supply of pharmaceuticals, in the open market, a development inimical to public health.
“These people have caused a lot of damage to the health of the society because, apart from dispensing fake and adulterated medicines, they lack the required cold store for pharmaceutical storage. With that alone, so many medicines on their shelf have lost efficacy because of the high temperature of where they stock products.”
