The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) have urged marketers operating open drug markets in – Lagos, Onitsha and Aba – should be ready to move into the Cordinators Wholesale Centres (CWCs) in the respective cities as soon as such facilities are built.
Both the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Christiana Adeyeye and the Registrar of PCN, Ibrahim Baba Shehu Ahmed gave the directive during a media briefing which was held in Lagos on Tuesday.
The new directive to the open drug marketers to move whenever the CWC in their state is ready followed a landmark judgement made by Justice Simon Amobeda in Kano Federal High Court on February 16, 2024, who ordered the open drug marketers in Kano to relocate their stores to Dangwauro CWC, Zaria Road, Kano.
Prof. Adeyeye said the order to the Kano marketers to relocate is in line with the PCN Act that regulates the practice sites and the practitioners, and with NAFDAC mandate of regulating and controlling the distribution, sale and use of drugs to ensure that the quality, safety and efficacy are maintained.
Recall that a total of 1,370 wholesale medicine outlets and packing stores in Kano were sealed for operating open drug markets.
The owners of these outlets were advised from Monday February 19, 2024 to report to the offices of NAFDAC and PCN, at the CWC in Dangwauro area of Kano to arrange for the relocation of their businesses to the newly completed CWC.
On his part the Registrar of PCN said 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. “The outcome will be a healthier population and the reduction of pain to the consumers,” he added.
Similarly, the Registrar of PCN disclosed that since the beginning of his tenure in 2017, the drive to mitigate substandard falsified and counterfeit medicines (SFs) is one of the pillars of his administration and the efforts that have been made led NAFDAC to the attainment of Maturity Level 3 of both NAFDAC and PCN.
The continued fight against SFs to make our citizens healthier has been blessed by the judgement by Justice Amobeda. It is most significant for both NAFDAC and PCN because it shows a resolve of the two Agencies to get rid of SFs in the Nigerian markets.
Consequently, the duo stated that the Justice Amobeda judgement has set the precedence that open drug marketers in other three big cities, where there is large trading of medicines – Lagos, Onitsha and Aba – should be ready to move into the CWCs in the respective cities as soon as such facilities are built.”
Similarly, the Registrar of PCN noted that the proposed Drug Market at Dalar Gyada by the National Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers in Kano cannot happen because only one CWC should be operated in a state and oPCN only has exclusive right to grant license for the operation of any
facility on drugs and poisons. “This means only the Federal Government can legislate on matters relating to premises and facilities on drugs and poisons.”
Ibrahim said the plan to commission a new Drug Market is illegal and contradicts separation of responsibility as enshrined in the constitution.
According to the director general of NAFDAC, National Drug Distribution policy approves only one CWC for Distributors and Wholesalers of Drugs and Pharmaceutical Products under the direct supervision of PCN for the issuance of requisite licenses and NAFDAC for the regulatory control of the products in the facility in the North as situated in Kano.
