22nd March, 2011
The Lagos State Task Force on Counterfeit, Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods has shut down 20 illegal pharmaceutical outlets in the Lekki area of Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
The operation was carried out at the weekend when taskforce officials swooped on the illegal outlets and shut them down for failing to register with the relevant bodies.
This recent effort is coming on the heels of a similar exercise at Idumota, Lagos Island and its environs during which the Task Force sealed up over 1,000 illegal drug operators for operating in unregistered and wrong environment.
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, explained that the Victoria Island-Ajah-Lekki exercise was necessitated by the excesses of illegal patent medicine stores and the resolve of government to streamline the activities of operators in the drug sector in its war against fake, substandard and expired drugs, and to check the inherent dangers associated with drugs from such unauthorized outlets.
“All people interested in selling medicine should liaise with the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Unit of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, the legitimate authorizing body for Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors License (PPMVL), located on the ground floor of Block 8, Old Secretariat, in Ikeja,” he said.
Idris urged those interested in importation, distribution and sales of drugs to get their premises licensed by the appropriate authority, the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria (PCN).
According to him, by the provision of the pharmaceutical laws, pharmaceutical premises could not be located in motor parks, market places, including kiosks and roadside stores, buses and ferries.
“Any pharmaceutical premises surrounded or covered completely by a growing market or standing close to it, shall relocate to another suitable location two years after formal notification to do so by the regulatory authorities, while pharmaceutical premises within a shopping centre shall not be more than three, and shall be well spaced out depending on the size of the complex,†he stated.
—Kazeem Ugbodaga