The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) have reiterated their commitments to end open drug markets in the country.
Speaking at a joint media briefing held in Lagos on Tuesday, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of NAFDAC, said open drug markets have been a sore point to drug regulatory agencies.
Adeyeye said that the relocation of the open drugs market in Kano to a coordinated Wholesale Centre (CWC), has set a standard that should be followed by others.
She said: “The chaotic drug distribution system in Nigeria and open drug markets have been a sore point to drug regulatory Agencies, especially to NAFDAC.
“This disorderly chain of movement of medicine from the manufacturer to the final consumer is inimical to the efficacy of pharmaceutical products and is the primary cause of substandard and falsified medicines being in circulation.
“The consequence of this, is treatment failure or even deaths. Therefore, to make Nigerians healthier and reduce mortality, NAFDAC and our sister agency, PCN, must continue to fight against it”.
According to the D-G, the fight to sanitise the drug distribution system started over a decade ago when the Presidential Committee on Pharmaceutical Sector Reform (PCPSR), constituted in 2003, developed strategies toward the sanitisation of drug distribution.
“The PCPSR recommended the development of National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG) as a key strategy to coordinate the drug distribution sub-sector and all operators in the open drug markets in Kano, Lagos, Onitsha and Aba.
“The open market in these states were given a deadline of December 2018 by the then Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, to relocate to CWC.
“The CWC, where the open marketers can be relocated for proper monitoring, is a product of the PCPSR.
“The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, is one of the architects of CWC and in full support of the centres.
“The NDDG gives a clear mandate to NAFDAC and PCN to ensure its full implementation and compliance by all concerned stakeholders,” she said.
Adeyeye added that NAFDAC and its sister agency, would continue to intensify efforts to ensure the establishment of CWC in other states.
Speaking also, the Registrar of PCN, Ibrahim Babashehu-Ahmed, said the CWC in Kano was the first to be built, as part of effort boost proper regulation of drug distribution and sale in Nigeria.
According to Babashehu-Ahmed, PCN is charged with the responsibility of regulating pharmacy practice sites, the practitioners, the patent and proprietary medicine vendors that use the open drug markets to sell medicines.
He said all efforts to relocate the open drugs market in Kano were resisted, noting that the dealers filed a lawsuit in a bid to stop their relocation.
According to him, a landmark judgement was made by Justice Simon Amobeda in Kano Federal High Court on Feb. 16, 2024, ordering the open drug marketers in Kano to relocate their stores to the CWC.
“The judgement that the open drug marketers should move to the Kano CWC is monumental because the control of drug distribution will be better regulated and prevalence of substandard medicines will be mitigated significantly.
“Since the beginning of my tenure in 2017, the drive to mitigate Substandard and falsified drugs is one of the pillars of my administration, and the efforts that have been made led NAFDAC to the attainment of Maturity Level 3 of both NAFDAC and PCN.
`NAFDAC had seven modules while PCN had one module (Site License) of the WHO Global Benchmarking (GBT).
“The two agencies are working together to maintain the Maturity Level three, while working toward Level four,” he said. (NAN)
