By Asma’u Ahmad
The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has advised patent medicine vendors to stock only drugs contained in their operational guidelines.
Registrar of the council, Mr. Elijah Mohammed, gave the advice at a Town Hall meeting with members of the Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED) in Abuja.
Mr. Mohammed said that the meeting was to foster discussion and rewarding interaction with members of the association.
He said that licensing and authorisation of non-pharmacist for stocking and selling of simple household medicine was entrenched in the Poisons and Pharmacy Act Cap 152 of 1958 and Poison and Pharmacy Act Cap 535, LFN.
The registrar said that the council, in its regular enforcement across the states of the federation, had confiscated several drugs and sealed many illegal patent medicine shops. Mohammed advised them to do the right thing by selling quality and only the approved drugs.
He said that much was required of them to safeguard the health of the people that patronise their services and also consume their products.
“It is pertinent to note that the issuance of patent and proprietary medicines vendors licence is tailored toward areas where pharmaceutical services are not readily available,” he said.
Also, Mr Theophilus Odoh, the President of NAPPMED, FCT chapter, lauded the initiative of the council, describing the meeting as a rare privilege to members of the association.
Odoh urged the council to do everything possible to create an enabling environment for the practitioners, saying that such measure would assist them in rendering efficient and quality services.
