Pharmacists’ council seals 348 illegal premises in Edo

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has sealed 348 illegal premises in Edo State. Registrar of the council, Pharmacist Elijah Mohammed, disclosed this in a statement yesterday.

He said the sealed premises comprised 84 pharmacies and 264 Patent Medicine Shops.

“While 22 compliance directives were issued to others for minor offences. The premises that were sealed were found not to be in compliance with the various regulatory provisions of the PCN mandate,” he said.

Meanwhile, the registrar said the council has inducted 159 graduates of pharmacy from foreign institutions.

He said the inductees were successful in the first cycle of the 2021 Foreign Pharmacist Graduate Orientation Programme (FPGOP), adding that the registration for the second cycle of the programme has commenced.

“This second cycle has been scheduled to commence on August 15, 2021 and would be taking place at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State (North) and University of Port-Harcourt,

Rivers State (South),” he said.

He said in line with the ongoing efforts to achieve maturity level 3 in the Global Benchmarking Assessment by the World Health Organisation (WHO), PCN, along with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) held successful virtual meetings with the Global Benchmarking Team (GBT) of the WHO.

He said the sessions were targeted at mock assessment of the level of compliance of National Regulatory Agencies to the earlier identified gaps during the last physical visit and subsequent virtual interactions.

“Successful attainment of maturity level 3 will enable Nigeria to be recognized by WHO for the production of vaccine, among other benefits,” he said.