TO prevent drug fakers from taking advantage of the new Dutse ultra modern market for their illicit activities, Partnerships for Transforming Health Systems PATHS2, a DFID project, in collaboration with the Jigawa State Ministry of Health, is working to ensure that shops are not allocated for drug commodities.
The trend, if not nipped in the bud, can bring about the possibility of drug merchants taking samples of genuine drugs to foreign countries to counterfeit them for quick profits within the market with innocent consumers finding it difficult to differentiate them from the genuine products.
According to the Director, Procurement and Supply, Lawal Bala, the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria’s guidelines on issuance of patent medicine vendors shop prohibit medicine stores from operating close to motor-parks, petrol stations and markets.
He emphasized that the guidelines for prohibition of operation of patent medicine vendors in the markets were conveyed to the Ministry of Health and that of commerce respectively to ensure shops are not allocated for that purpose within the market.
