In a move to ensure organised drug distribution system in the country
is strengthened, the federal government will on July 1, commence the
implementation of the National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDGs).
Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Linus Awute
stated this yesterday in Abuja, stressing that, regulatory agencies like
the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) and NAFDAC would on that date,
resume the exercise of their mandate to ensure full compliance.
He said “We are hopeful that the existence of open drug markets in the
country will be a thing of the past as the drug distribution system of
the country has remained uncoordinated, chaotic and has resulted in the
circulation of fake, adulterated, substandard and counterfeit drugs.
According to Awute, the chaotic drug distribution posed a very big
challenge to the pharmaceutical sector in particular and the federal
government in general considering the negative impact the situation has
on the entire health care delivery system of the country.
It will be recalled that in order to address the ugly situation, the
federal government established the Presidential Committee on
Pharmaceutical Sector Reform and charged it among others, to develop a
strategy towards the institutionalisation of a well ordered drug
distribution system.
Also, strategies adopted by the committee to achieve this include the
development of the National Drug Distribution Guidelines in 2010 to
provide guidance for drug distribution, aimed at curtailing fictitious
drugs marketing.
Awute said: “The launch of the document in 2012 signaled the take-off
of its implementation while the deadline was for the establishment of
State Drug Distribution Centres (SDDCs) by the state governments and
Mega Drug Distribution Centres (MDDSs) by the private sector was
declared on 30th June, 2014.
“The deadline was however extended to 30th June 2015 to allow more time for the establishment of more SDDCs and MDDCs.”
He explained that as the new deadline date has drown near, it was
imperative to remind stakeholder in the pharmaceutical sector and
Nigerians so that they will commence the full implementation of the
National Drug Distribution Guidelines.
The permanent secretary maintained that state governments are allowed
to upgrade their medical stores to the level of SDDCs where states like
Jigawa, Niger, and Ekiti had already commenced the implementation of the
guidelines while Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Anambra SDDCs are expected
to for take-off soon.
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