Gom Mirian
The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has called on President Bola Tinubu to urgently address the regulation of drug prescription and dispensing in Nigeria.
In a letter to the Presidency, on Sunday, the ACPN expressed concerns about the poor quality of drug prescription and dispensing rights, as well as rising drug costs, which pose a risk to the safety of Nigerian health consumers.
The ACPN highlighted the lapses in dispensing and prescribing of drugs, citing it as a major drawback in Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme.
According to the letter jointly signed by the ACPN National Chairman, Adewale Oladigbolu, and the National Secretary, Ashore Omokhafe, the associations also raised concerns about the proliferation of unregistered drug sellers who engage in illegal and unregulated drug distribution practices, alleged that doctors in the country are illegally dispensing drugs, contributing to drug abuse and misuse.
The letter reads, “In Nigeria today, there are only about six thousand (6,000) registered pharmacy facilities in the various cadres of practice, including retailers, wholesale, importation and manufacturing. Of this number, less than four thousand (4,000) are retailers who provide services directly to the consuming public.
“While there are less than four thousand (4,000) registered retail pharmacies; there exist over a million different drug sellers who are unregistered. It is this plethora of illegal drug sellers who are largely unregulated who perpetrate most of the obnoxious and dirty practices in drug distribution in Nigeria,” it added.
Furthermore, the ACPN emphasized the need for the Federal Government to compel legitimate prescribers to embrace generic drug prescribing and to resuscitate the National Prescription and Dispensing Committee. The association also called for a comprehensive survey of dispensing and prescription practices to identify gaps and for NAFDAC to delineate different categories of medicines in line with its statutory powers.
The ACPN stressed the importance of adhering to international guidelines on Good Pharmacy Practice and emphasized the need to prioritize prescription quality and appropriate dispensing rights to ensure the safety of health consumers in Nigeria.
