Pharmacists Council seals 165 pharmacies and patent medicine stores in Delta

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria on Friday said that it had sealed 165 pharmacies, patent and proprietary medicine vendors’ stores in Delta as at September 2018.
Antonia Aruya, the Director in charge of Inspection and Monitoring of PCN who disclosed this to newsmen in Asaba said that 21 pharmacies and 144 PPMVs were affected.
She said that seven non-compliant directives were issued to five pharmacies and two PPMVs for committing various offences.
She listed the offences to include: improper handling of controlled substances, unhygienic environment, poor documentation among others.
Aruya also said that 10 people arrested would soon be taken to court for prosecution.
She said that the sealing was based on observations and reports from the field in Delta.
The director said that the reports revealed that many people were into the sales of medicines without following due process.
She said that others did not have the requisite knowledge or skills to handle medicines in their premises or were alleged to be performing operations beyond their approved scopes.
She also said that some persons not permitted by the law to handle controlled substances were found to have stocked and were selling such products thus endangering the lives of the public.
She said that several of the culprits did not understand the laws and guidelines regulating the pharmaceutical landscape.
Aruya said that the culprits had by their actions misled other stakeholders to operate in ignorance.
She, however, advised the public to source their drug needs from registered pharmaceutical outlets and over the counter medicines from registered PPMV shops.
The director said that drugs sold by unregistered outlets could not be guaranteed to be genuine by the PCN.
She also advised the public to visit the PCN National Headquarters at Plot 7/9 Industrial Layout Area, Idu in Abuja or any of their offices nationwide.
She said they would be willing to give them the proper guidance on how they could set up such facilities as required by law.