The Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) has begun licensing individuals and facilities selling medicines via social media and other online platforms, as authorities move to regulate a sector that expanded sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Announcing the initiative in Abuja on Wednesday, PCN Registrar and Chief Executive, Ibrahim Ahmed, said the council’s 2022 Establishment Act anticipated the need to oversee e-pharmacy services and digital medicine sales.
“We have commenced the licensing of facilities involved in the sale of medicines,” Ahmed said, noting that enforcement posed unique challenges as many online vendors lacked physical addresses and operated beyond national borders.
To tackle this, the PCN is working with Interpol, which can shut down offending websites in 194 countries. One such platform has already been taken offline in collaboration with the international policing body.
Ahmed stressed the role of IT experts in inspecting digital pharmacies, warning that “what you see on the front end of a website may differ from the back end.” A licensed pharmacist must oversee the backend before approval is granted, he added.
The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, confirmed that her agency had been licensing online drug vendors since 2022.
She recalled that last year, NAFDAC intelligence led to the seizure of a falsified anti-cancer drug sold online and the arrest of a suspect in southern Nigeria. Adeyeye added that staff training in September would introduce new technology to trace internet-based drug sales.
