Pharmacy Bill will curb inappropriate drug distribution – PSN

The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria has assured that the Pharmacy Bill will curb inappropriate drug distribution channels which have made Nigeria famous for the fake drug syndrome.

President of the society, Cyril Usifo, made this known at the just concluded 95th annual conference of the PSN held in Jos, Plateau State.

Usifo also commended the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for what he described as landmark assent to the Pharmacy Bill.

He said, “We convey our gratitude to the FG and most especially President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR for his landmark assent to the Pharmacy Bill. I find it imperative to call on the Presidency and other appropriate arms of government that the Pharmacy Bill has the propensities to restore normalcy to our indecorous drug distribution channels which have made Nigeria famous for the fake drug syndrome.

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“This oddity is surmountable through proactive action of adequate funding of the PCN and other agencies that regulate the drug distribution channels, especially NAFDAC and NDLEA.

“We must maintain audit trails of drug distribution from manufacturers and importers to distributors, retailers, PMV dealers, and hospitals in the public and private sectors. Once we begin to monitor and control the value chain in drug distribution endeavours, then our journey to fulfilment commences.”

Usifo, however, charged Presidential aspirants of the various political parties to begin to look at how to fast-track new but substantial investments in healthcare, adding that the pharmaceutical sector offers the biggest prospects in this regard.

He also urged the Federal Government to stimulate a functional petrochemical industry that guarantees an industrial revolution beyond the pharma industry, adding that Nigeria pharmacists must become primary producers of APIs, excipients, equivalents, packaging materials and all other finished products in a determined bid to attain medicine sufficiency and security.

Speaking on the recent declarations by some concerned stakeholders to develop a holistic Academic Pharmacy resource template in Nigeria, Usifo said the PSN is leading initiatives to establish the National Post-graduate College of Pharmacists.

He said, “Our goal is to restructure the totality of the relationship management architecture between the post-graduate college and universities through appropriate regulatory platforms in the education sector for new benefits packages to accrue to all concerned in the training process of Pharmacists of both undergraduate and Postgraduate levels.”