The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, on Saturday said the Federal Government was determined to stop the sale of drugs in open markets in the counarlier announced July 31, 2017 as the deadline to end the sale of drugs in open markets. This deadline was later extended to 31st December 2018 as the earlier date of July 31, 2017 was unrealistic.

The Honorable Minister made this known when he visited the site for the construction of a Pharmaceutical Coordinated Wholesale Centre at Oba, near Onitsha in Anambra. This is one of the coordinated wholesale centre that is planned to be established in Onitsha, Aba, Kano and Lagos with a promise to extend it to other cities.

During the visit, the Acting Director General of NAFDAC called on all stakeholders in drug business to join hands to safeguard the health of the nation. According to her, the reason for the coordinated centre is to ensure that any drug under the facility is in appropriate drug storage condition.

This exercise shows the determination of the Federal Ministry of Health in conjunction with the NAFDAC and other stakeholders towards the implementation of the National Policy on Drug Distribution as the Pharmaceutical Coordinated Wholesale Centre will now serve as better alternatives to open markets.

It will be recalled that in 2016, NAFDAC with the support of some international donor agencies published NAFDAC Good Distribution Practices Guidelines For Pharmaceutical Products 2016 V 13 as part of the implementation of this National Policy on drug distribution.

Watch out for our review of this guidelines to understand how it will impact the distribution of medicines in Nigeria.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/08/open-drugs-market-ends-2018-says-minister/

Many policies without implementation.



Dr Leonard