PIC closes more than 100 illegal drug outlets in Kogi

In Kogi State, more than 100 drugstores have been closed by the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Committee (PIC).

In a statement to commemorate this year’s World Pharmacist Day with the subject “Pharmacists Strengthening the Health System,” Dr. Lawal Muhammed Omuya, vice chairman of PIC, revealed this on Monday.

The Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), and employees of the State Ministry of Health are among the organisations that make up PIC, according to Omuya, who also serves as the PSN’s State Chairman.

He said the operation was completed between January and September 2023 and added that the body is working around the clock to eradicate quackery in the state.

From a professional and infrastructure perspective, quack medicine can be examined. When non-pharmacists, both trained and uneducated, pose as chemists in public, they are carrying out or attempting to perform the duties of a pharmacist. This is known as the professional angle.

“On the other hand, we are also examining local institutions that are prohibited by law and have a bad reputation among the pharmaceutical profession. As customers shop at these overstocked drug stores under the notion that they are licenced pharmacies where they may obtain high-quality medications and pharmaceutical services, they mistakenly believe that they are pharmacies.

These are the two bases on which we are currently combating quackery. Through the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Committee, which has been established in each of the 36 States of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, in partnership with the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, regularly conducts monitoring and inspections to make sure that the quackery issue we have in our society is addressed. You’ll concur with me when I say that this will need a lot of resources.

“Facilities are immediately shut down and sealed when we conduct routine monitoring and inspection and find that they are operating unlawfully. The facilities that are not operating illegally and are licenced by the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria to provide pharmaceutical services to the community but are operating below the standards expected of them will then be given what is known as a “compliance directive” within a specific time frame for them to meet up.

“We also shut them down if they are unable to meet up. We put these safeguards in place to make sure that healthcare delivery is rational. The full force of the law is brought to bear on those who are detected engaging in pharmaceutical practise but are not supposed to. This is what prompted the closure of more than 100 illegal drug businesses and the arrest of quacks this year, the official claimed.

He made a plea to the Kogi State Government to work with PSN and PCN so that their activities may be carried out more successfully and effectively by offering security, transportation, and other logistical requirements for their operations.

The Kogi State PSN stated on World Pharmacist Day this year that chemists contribute to improving health outcomes, including value for Nigerians’ money, while lowering healthcare expenditures and waste.

Dr. Omuya advised Kogites to constantly visit chemists regarding drug-related issues and said that doing so would help to improve medicine use and lessen the burden associated with it, which would help to improve the nation’s health system.

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) was established in 1912; World Pharmacists Day was declared by the FIP Council in 2009 to commemorate this event. It is marked on 25 September each year.

Every year, the FIP Bureau selects the theme for the World Pharmacists Day campaign, which is run by FIP.