By; MATTHEW UKACHUNWA, Lagos.
Licensed patent medicine vendors have been told to sell drugs only in their original packs and approved pack sizes as produced and packaged by their manufacturers.
Lagos State Government handed down this warning recently when a combined team of federal and state task force on counterfeit, fake drugs and unwholesome processed foods raided Ikorodu area of the state.
The team included Lagos State Task Force, National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria and the state’s Rapid Response Squad officials.
“The law prohibits dispensing and wholesalingng of drugs by patent medicine vendors ,” explained Dr Olufemi Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the Laos State governor on Primary Healthcare.
He reiterated the commitment of the state government to rid the state of of fake drugs and stem the proliferation of of illegal pharmaceutical outlets.
Onanuga expressed concern over danger posed by the acti8vities of the illegal patent medicine operators.
He said that 37 out of the 49 outlets visited were sealed off forfor various offences ranging from engaging quacks, operating beyond their legal “scope through sell of ethical products and dispensing drugs to unsuspecting citizens.”
Other offenders, he disclosed, include operators of unregistered premises who displayed stored drugs in environment that are not conducive.
Onanuga maintained that government will sustain the raid until operators in the sector “adhere strictly to provisions of the law on the operation of pharmacies and patent medicine stores in order to safeguard the health of the citizens.”
He pointed out that an investigative meeting will be held between the authorities and operatorsof patent medicines to impress on the vendors procedures and appropriate regulations in the operation.
