Association of Community Pharmacists Nigeria (ACPN) has urged the Federal Government to shut all open drug markets and adequately compensate community pharmacists for the recalled drugs sent back to National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and implement the new national drug distribution guidelines.  

It made the appeal, yesterday, in Lagos, at a press briefing to sensitise the public to existence of the dangerous substance, “Dexamethasone”, in open drug markets. 

ACPN National Chairman, Adewale Aderemi Oladigbolu, advised government to sufficiently empower NAFDAC to carry out its oversight functions.

He said: “Definitely, NAFDAC needs more funding to carry out its oversight functions and the Federal Government must close down all open drug markets in the country. This is because as community pharmacists are recalling medicines, it will be difficult to recall the ones in the open markets. And not only that, many people handling medicines do not have the requisite training and so do not know the implication of what they are doing.”