The Pharmaceutical Council Of Nigeria (PCN) has sealed a total number 378 premises comprising of 34 pharmacies and 344 patent medicine stores in Taraba State

The PCN team, which was in the state for a week while briefing journalists on Friday in Jalingo, Taraba State capital, said the team had visited all the 16 local government areas of the state to conduct the exercise.

The Director, Enforcement of PCN, Pharm. Steven Osumobi, during the briefing said at the end of the exercise, 546 premises were visited in the state, comprising 481 patent proprietary medicine vendor shops and 65 pharmacies.

“378 premises were sealed comprising 34 pharmacies and 344 Patent Medicine Vendor Shops, 24 compliance directives were issued for various offenses such as poor sanitary conditions, poor documentation and non-display of premises and Phamacist annual licences.

“The public is hereby advised to source all drugs from registered and currently licensed Phamacists and over-the-counter medicines from registered dealers as drug sold in unregistered outlets cannot be guaranteed to genuine,” Osumobi said.

PCN, however, revealed that while on the field for the exercise, there was commendable level of compliance by some stakeholders in the state capital with some anomalies discovered in other places.

“This cannot be said of stakeholders across the local government areas, so many premises are registered with PCN while a large number of those registered do not bother to renew their licences, most of patent medicine vendors are engaged in activities far beyond their scope and also stock products outside their approved drug list including unethical medicines and substances of abuse,” he stated.