The Ondo State Joint Task Force on Fake and Counterfeit Drugs has clamped down on illegal Patient Vendors at Ayede-Ogbese and Shasha markets in Ondo State.
They shut 10 medicine stores.
The Chairman of the Ondo State Joint Task Force on Fake and Counterfeit Drugs, Mr. Olugbenga Lasekan, a pharmacist, who led the team, decried the recalcitrant attitude of most patient medicine vendors in the areas visited, “as they open premises without recourse to rules of practice.”
He said according to the rules laid down by the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria (PCN), no medicine outlet should be opened without consulting the PCN for approval, premises should not be sited at filling stations, markets and motor parks; and containers should not be used as shops.
Lasekan said: “Shops that open without following laid down rules and are not licensed are illegal, while drugs without NAFDAC registration are fake.
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“By the rules of practice, patient medicine vendors have list of drugs they are permitted to sell, which does not include antibiotics, injections and control drugs.
“People are not allowed to hawk drugs because the drugs are supposed to be stored under certain temperature, which the practice of hawking violates, thus making the drugs unhealthy for human consumption.”
He added that that the state has zero tolerance for fake, adulterated and unwholesome products as well as illegal premises and will not rest on its oars until the state is rid of defaulters.
Lasekan warned that the government will not hesitate to prosecute recalcitrant vendors and association leaders who aid and abet illegality.
He advised vendors to obtain licences from PCN, to avoid harassment and embarrassment.
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