The Nation Newspaper

Tag: pharmacy

  • Pharmacy urges improved personal hygiene

    pharmaceutical firm, Troop Pharmacy Limited, has urged Nigerians to embrace improved hygiene in their day to day activities to avoid contacting diseases.

    Its Managing Director, Mrs Chizomam Emeje, who gave the advice during a community health talk in Okota, a suburb of Lagos, as part of activities to mark the firm’s 17th year anniversary, said although the World Health Orgnaisation (WHO) has certified the country Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) free, its emergence has brought to the fore the need to take health consciousness seriously.

    She stressed the need for advocacy for personal hygiene among rural and semi-urban dwellers, adding that health is wealth.

    She lamented that some companies have now stopped providing hand-sanitisers for their clients.

    She said:  ”We have to even pass the culture of hygiene consciousness to our children. You would observe that even the medical doctors, each time they attend to patients, they make it a point of duty to wash their hands. That was the practice when I was growing up. But now, that practice is gradually fading away as some of them attend to one patient and move to the next without making efforts to wash their hands. Even when medical personnel counsel a patient and touches them, they must wash their hands. That is a tradition that has been established from time immemorial and we must continue with it.”

    She urged relevant authorities to address the scourge of quackery in the profession, adding that it is threat that is common among health practitioners, especially in the community pharmacy space.

    She said: “The profession has been bedeviled by quacks. Here in the pharmacy, we have a prescription printing machine. It is heartbreaking when some ignorant practitioners come around and tend to make mockery of knowledge. They see you as masquerading. However, we are not giving up, because community pharmacy is a call to serve the people.

    “In the last 17 years, we have existed in this environment; the challenge has been lack of knowledge among some members of the community. Most Nigerians do not read so when some of them comes to see the pharmacist and the bring doctor’s prescription and you probably do on not have the prescribed drug in stock and you are giving them an alternative, they will insist it is the one the doctor recommended that they want This attitude is borne out of the fact that they do not know who a pharmacist is really.

    “A pharmacist is not there just to dispense drugs. A pharmacist engages in counseling. We have more time with the patients than the doctors. So, the dwindling reading culture is affecting our understanding of health matters too. However, we have been able to build up the culture among the community members to listen when you are giving advice on prescribed drugs.”

    Speaking on Healthy Living: A Choice, Director, MeCure Industries Limited, Mrs Dukor Anderline, also called for preventive medicine.

    She said: “Health is all encompassing. Initially, everybody was emphasising treatments, but you could find out that everything is turning towards public health. That is, preventive medicine. Like in our endemic area-Nigeria, there is much mosquito; so malaria and typhoid are prevalent.

    “However, why I chose to discuss about cardiovascular is that it is a silent killer that tend to be neglected. But somehow, it is taking the lead among killer diseases in Africa. Before now, it was common among the rich, but today the rural dwellers suffer it too, because the life-style in the cities is gradually turning towards rural areas. Therefore, preventive medicine is the preaching these days.

    She added that hygiene should not be neglected too. Cleanliness, they say, is next to godliness. Both communicable, the contagious, and the life-style diseases; there is need for screening to know ones status, and how to manage it,” she added.

  • Don seeks quality control in pharmacy

    don at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Prof Mbah John Chika, has urged pharmaceutical firms to adopt quality control in their processes.

    He gave the advice while delivery the 89th Inaugural Lecture of the UNN.

    He said: “Quality controlin pharmaceutical practice must undergo the performance of simple chemical tests to accept the originality of identity and purity in pharmaceutical method. It is an important task in the pharmaceutical industry that is guiding quality protects the producers against compensation claims and effective products.’’

    Speaking on ‘’The control of impurities in the Quality Control of Pharmaceutical Dosage Form’’,  Chika defined ‘an impurity in a drug product as any component of the drug product that is not the chemical entity defined as an excipient in the drug products’.

    He added that any extraneous material in a drug is an impurity even if it is inert or has superior pharmacological properties.’

    The don emphasised that the control of impurities in pharmaceutical compounds was necessary to ensure the drugs’ quality and safety.

    In an opening remark by the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof Benjamin Ozumba, represented by his deputy on Academics, Prof Polycarp Chigbu, emphasised the importance of research to man.

    The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Polycarp Chigbu, praised the don for his quality of research, imploring stakeholders to uphold the cardinal points of hard work, industry and devotion to duty.

     

  • 40 take pharmacy oath

    40 take pharmacy oath

    No fewer than 40 graduates were inducted into Pharmacists Council of Nigeria by the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Ibadan. The induction ceremony was held at the Large Lecture Theatre of the Faculty of Pharmacy last week.

    The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Isaac Adewole, represented his deputy on Administration, Prof Emilolorun Ayelari, said the faculty had demonstrated great commitment to meeting the manpower needs of the nation’s pharmaceutical sector in its over 30 years of existence.

    The VC said the faculty’s dedication to excellence had resulted in the establishment of the Centre for Drug Discovery, Development and Production (CDDDP) through MacArthur Grant for Excellence.

    The Dean, Prof Chinedum Babalola, congratulated the graduands and their parents, saying the faculty had produced great professionals with local and international recognitions.

    Mrs Fayo Williams, who delivered the induction lecture titled: From lab to enterprise: cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset, advised the graduands to be creative and learn new skills to make them employable. Mrs Williams noted that there was need for a paradigm shift as a result of high unemployment rate in the country.

    The Registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), Mr Elijah Mohammed, charged them to discharge their responsibilities with professionalism.

    Mohammed decried the problem of brain drain that had led to the shortage of pharmacists in the nation’s pharmaceutical sector.  He assured  the graduating students  that his administration would reposition pharmacy registry for effective service delivery and institutionalisation of good pharmacy practice in Nigeria.

    Abiola Adenike Ola emerged best graduating students and was awarded the PCN Prize.

  • ‘Pharmacy should be job spinning’

    ‘Pharmacy should be job spinning’

    With creativity and good planning, pharmacists can create jobs . According to experts, pharmacists worth their salt should not be jobless because the profession is full of potential, writes AKINOLA AJIBADE

    Many graduates are unemployed. The reason is because there are no jobs whether at home or abroad. In fact, getting a job has become a huge task as the economy dips further. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) puts the unemployment rate at over 60 per cent, signalling danger to the economy. Despite these uncertainties, job opportunities abound for pharmacists.

    An integral part of medical science, pharmacy is broad and can help grow the economy. Experts said pharmacists have a wide range of job’ opportunities to choose from and earn a living, once they can explore them. They said pharmacists play crucial roles in the healthcare delivery system, adding that those that know their onions would always get jobs to do.

    Former President, Neimeth Pharmaceutical International, Mazi Ohuabunwa, said pharmacists could only be jobless if they did not know what they are doing. He said pharmacists have acquired skills that would help them in getting jobs.

    He said pharmacy offers room for creativity, advising people to use their professional or technical skills to an advantage. He said pharmacy can be divided into clinical, community and trade, arguing that jobs can be created from the three areas. He said clinical pharmacy enables people to work in maternity centres and hospitals, among others for growth.

    Ohuabunwa said: “Under clinical pharmacy, people are required to work in the hospitals. Such people give out medications to patients. They complement the work of medical doctors, offering advise where necessary. They help in explaining in simpler terms the meaning, composition of drugs, their usage and side effects, among others. It is not compulsory that such pharmacists must work full-time in teaching or general hospitals before they can earn a living. They can work on part-time as well. There are thousands of dispensary and maternity centres that need their services.”

    He said pharmacists can acquire experience over time, urging them to start from small hospitals before moving to bigger ones. The development, he said, would help them in getting better jobs.

    On community pharmacy, Ohabunwa said practitioners are required to open shops and sell drugs. They also offer first aids, and advise people on drugs. He said opportunities abound in community pharmacy, arguing that they have not been fully exploited. He said hospitals recommend people to community pharmacists because they know they offer good services.

    “This is where pharmacists have an edge over unregistered seller of drugs. In any community where community pharmacists are, they are sure of getting customers because of their expertise. People are now afraid of patronising ‘Merchants of Death’ or people simply referred to as fake drug peddlers. The market at the community level is big, and requires many players. The market is inexhaustible because people would always buy drugs. No matter the number of pharmaceutical shops in a community, they would get customers once they are selling genuine drugs. The more the pharmaceutical shops, the better for the community.

    “There is no 100 per cent assurance that Shop’A’ would have all the drugs needed by patients. What shop ‘A’ may have, Shop ’B’ may not have. There is what we call ‘Variability in cost, names and the usage of drugs. For instance, drugs have different brands. If a patient failed to get the prescribed drugs from ‘ Shop A’, he or she is obliged to go to ‘Shop B’ to get the drugs at cheaper prices.”

    He said pharmacists can open shops with small money, and expand their business later.

    Under trade pharmacy, Ohuabunwa said pharmacists can work as suppliers, distributors or exporters of drugs. He said the cost of supplying, distributing and exporting drugs varies, urging pharmacists to choose the area where they can operate well. He advised pharmacists to go to manufacturers, get the list of drugs, negotiate with them, and distribute the drugs for a fee.

    Ohuabunwa, who was a former Vice Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Ikeja Branch said opportunities abound for people that want to go to into pharmacy, adding that such people can sell drugs online or through other means.

    According to him, research has shown that pharmacists can create over 50,000 online jobs for themselves. He said online drugs trading is growing, advising people to tap into the opportunities offered by the Information Communication and Technology (ICT).

    Also, a pharmacist with TAOT Associates Limited, Oyawole Bola, said people can create jobs by going community pharmacy.

    He advises pharmacists to explore opportunities in rural areas to create jobs. He said pharmacists are needed in rural areas to provide services to people, urging the unemployed to go to those areas and do something.

    “The primary healthcare delivery system is poor in rural areas. We need more people to provide community pharmacy service. There is a big market in the urban, semi-urban and rural areas for community pharmacists. Pharmacists who go to rural areas to render neighbourhood services would develop and expand their businesses because of its huge market. With time, such pharmacists would become employers of labour.” he added.

    According to him, pharmacists have a lot to benefit from the nation’s petrochemical industry. The industry, Bola said, offers numerous opportunities for pharmacists who are ready to work.

    He urged pharmacists to take advantage of the country’s’ petrochemical industry for growth, noting that they can work directly or indirectly in the industry. He said raw materials used for drugs are derived from petrochemicals, adding that pharmacists can work in the industry as analysts, processors, among others.

    ‘’Pharmacists would get more jobs once the government can provide infrastructure that would aid the growth of petrochemical industry. If the petrochemical industry has been developed to a level where we can produce enough raw materials for drugs manufacturers, the better for the healthcare system and the pharmacists. Active pharmaceutical ingredients are derived from petrochemicals. Once the drug’ producers are able to get enough raw materials from the industry, they would operate well,’’ he added.

    He said many pharmacists are unemployed because they are not proactive, adding that the development has made many to lose touch with the profession.

    Recently, Minister of Health Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu advised health service providers to look inwards and create jobs. He said the sector has a lot of potentials, noting that millions of jobs can be created across board given a conducive economic environment. He said thousands of jobs can be created from medicine, nursing and pharmacy. Also, former Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Prof Dora Akunyili said there was a big market for orthodox and traditional drugs, advising pharmacists to take advantage of the opportunity.

    Akunyili, a former Minister of Information, also said there is a fusion of orthodox and traditional medicine globally, urging pharmacists not to be cut unaware if they want to grow.

    She advised pharmacists to conduct research on herbs, process them and come out with alternative drugs to make money. She said once the research is based on empherical evidence, pharmacists would come with good drugs and make money.

     

  • NAFDAC seals off pharmacy over fake drugs

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has sealed off Anyiwest Pharmacy at 1, Meiran Road, Ojokoro, a Lagos suburb. The manager was arrested for stocking and dispensing contraband and expired drugs.

    In a statement yesterday, its public relations officer, Anslem Okonkwor said NAFDAC took the action following a petition by some people against the pharmacy. He said upon investigation, it was discovered that the pharmacy stocked Analgin and Tagaprox injections, which have been banned, and Ferotone and Flu capsules, which have expired.

    According to the Director of Enforcement, Mr. Garba MacDonald, the Agency’s officials acted to prevent the pharmacy from further endangering people’s lives through its unwholesome activities. He said there was no premises registration certificate at the pharmacy as stipulated by law, casting a doubt on its current registration status with the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria (PCN).

    MacDonald said the pharmacy did not only violate NAFDAC’s regulations but also engaged in professional misconduct. The outfit, he said, would remain shut and the products in stock subjected to further screening.