NAFDAC, PCN order relocation of drug markets in Kano

NATIONAL Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) have directed Kano drug marketers to relocate their businesses to the Coordinated Wholesale Centre (CWC) in Dangwauro, to check substandard and falsified medicines (SFs).

NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, and PCN Registrar, Ibrahim Ahmed, said open drug markets such as those in Sabon Gari, Malam Kato and Mai Karami Plaza in Kano, contribute to circulation of SFs, leading to treatment failures and preventable deaths.

They called on the drug dealers to comply with the Federal High Court’s February 2024 ruling mandating their relocation to Kano CWC.

Adeyeye added that enforcement action, taken earlier this year, resulted in the sealing of 1,370 illegal drug outlets in Kano’s open markets.

Ahmed said: “Over the years, the medicine dealers in Kano have resisted all attempts by concerned regulatory authorities to relocate their pharmaceutical businesses from the open drug markets in Mai Karami Plaza, Niger Street, Malam Kato and Sabon Gari areas of Kano to the Coordinated Wholesale Centres in Dangwauro area of the state.

The dealers even filed a suit in court, seeking to reject relocation to the Coordinated Wholesale Centre.

“The judgment that the open drug marketers should move to the Kano CWC is monumental because the control of drug distribution will be better regulated and prevalence of substandard medicines will be mitigated significantly.”