The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has sealed off 596 pharmacies and patent medicine stores after a monitoring and inspection exercise in the 11 local government areas of Gombe State.

Addressing a press conference on Friday in Gombe, a Director of Inspection and Monitoring of the PCN, Mrs Anthonia Aruya, said the team has visited a total of 700 premises, comprising of 26 pharmacies and 674 Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) during the exercise.

“At the end of the exercise a total of 596 premises were sealed, comprising nine pharmaceutical stores and 585 PPMVs,” she said.

Mrs Aruya said the drug stores were sealed off for various offences such as; going into the sale of medicines without due process, lacking the requisite knowledge and skills to handle medicines in their premises, operating beyond their approved scope.

The director added that many shops were found to stock and sell controlled substances in disregard of the law which she said has further endangered the general public.

“We also gave compliance directive to 19 patent medicine stores and three pharmacies for various offences ranging from improper handling of controlled substances, unhygienic environment, poor documentation and dispensing ethical and prescription drugs without the presence of a pharmacist,” she added.

Mrs Aruya, therefore, advised members of the public to source its drugs needs from registered pharmacy outlets and over the counter drugs from registered PPMVs, saying drugs purchase in unregistered outlets cannot be guaranteed to be genuine. 596 pharmacists, patent medicine stores sealed in Gombe

•Sourced from a Daily Trust report

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