PCN seals 520 phamacies,  patent medicine premises in Kwara 


The Phamacists Cuncil of Nigeria (PCN )Thursday said it has sealed a total of 420 premises including pharmacies and patents medicine stores  across Kwara state for flaunting it standard guidelines for their operations.

The council lamented that most of the affected  phamacies accros the state were not registered while the registered ones did not bother to renew thier licences and do not have pharmacists on ground as required by law. 

PCN director and head enforcement department, Stephen Esumobi, made the disclosure at a press conference held at the end of the council’s week long monitoring and enforcement excercise across local governments in the state.

Addressing reporters, Esumobi, said, “the PCN enforcement teams have been on the fied  in Kwara state throughout the week visiting premises  in the following local governments of areas: Ilorin west, east, Ilorin south, Asa ,Moro Oyun and Ifelodun lical government. 

“Observatuons fron the field in the state revealed that while there commendable level of compliance by some stakeholders, others have chosen to operate with total disregard for PCN guidlines.

“So many premises are not registered  with the PCN while a large number of these did not bothere to renew their licenses  .Most of the the patent medicine vendors are engaged in activities far beyond their scope and also stocked products outside their approved drug lists including ethical medicines and substances of abuse.

“At the end of the excercise , a total of 743 premises were visited .This comprises 594 patent medicine shops (PPMVs) and 149 Pharmacies . A total of 520 premises were sealed comprising  39 phamacies and 481 patent medicines shops.

“Eight 8 compliance directive were issued  for varoius offences such as poor sanctuary  conditions, poor documentation  and non -display of premises and Phamacists annual licenses.”

He warned members of the public to patronize only registered medicine shops and pharmacies who complied with the council’s guidelines to avoid being victims of health hazards that might arises from thier non-compliance practices.