HEALTH officials plan to shut down all open drug markets in Nigeria on July 1 as part of a crackdown on counterfeit pharmaceuticals as part of a programme to introduce the new National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG). 

In a radical move designed to scrap roadside pharmacies and make the drug trade more professional, a new distribution regime is being introduced.  According to Linus Awute, the permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac) will implement the new guidelines. 

He added that the current chaotic drug distribution system poses a very big challenge to the pharmaceutical sector in particular and the entire healthcare system of the country in general. Under the new regime, only licensed pharmacies, staffed by fully qualified pharmacists will be allowed to sell drugs. 

In order to address the problem of fake drugs, the federal government established the Presidential Committee on Pharmaceutical Sector Reform and charged it to develop a strategy towards the institutionalisation of a well-ordered drug distribution system. Strategies adopted by the committee to achieve this include the development of the NDDG in 2010 to provide guidance for drug distribution. 

Meanwhile, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said Nigeria has the highest number of persons serving jail terms for drug-related offences worldwide. Iweajunwa Okechukwu, the NDLEA commander in Niger State, said that the recent Indonesian saga involving Nigerians was a pointer to the claim.