‘Ethical Drugs Not For Patent Medicine Dealers’

Against the backdrop that unqualified persons, also known as Patent Medicine Dealers (PMD), sell drugs they are not supposed to sell, a pharmacist, Godson Chukunda has called for a check to it.
In an exclusive interview with The Tide, Chukunda stated that PMDs are not supposed to sell ethical drugs because they do not know the compositions of such drugs, and what damages could arise from the drugs.
Ethical drugs, he said, are “drugs that you sell only on doctor’s prescription, as opposed to over-the-counter drugs, the ones you can walk to the counter and purchase”.
Examples of ethical drugs, he said, include antibiotics and hypertensive drugs, while over-the-counter drugs include paracetamol, panadol and Andrew liver salt.
According to him, patent medicine dealers are not supposed to sell ethical drugs “because of their side effects and their mechanism of actions”.
Chukunda, a former chairman of Pharmacentical Society of Nigeria (PSN), and Managing Director, Jeda Pharmacy Ltd, said during his tenure as Chairman of PSN, over 200 PMDs were arrested for either dealing in fake/substandard drugs or selling ethical drugs, and handed over to relevant authorities.
He explained that contrary to widely held belief that pharmalists should check the anomalies of the spread of fake/substandard drugs in the society, and the excesses of PMDs, the PSN is limited in its function.
“What some people don’t understand is that as pharmacists, we would want to operate in an environment that is completely free of fake and substandard products.
“Unfortunately for us we do not regulate (sale of drugs), or prosecute offenders. Our own is to point out from time to time those who are into faking (pharmaceutical) products to government.
“It is the duty of government to prosecute such persons we present to them as offenders”, he said.
Towards doing their part of identifying offenders, the former PSN boss in Rivers State said the organisation has a committee vested with the responsibility of carrying out periodic inspection of facilities involved in pharmaceuticals.

Sogbeba Dokubo