The new National Guideline on Drug Distribution is expected to take effect in June this year, having being shifted from June 2014. The government seeks to close down the chaotic open drug market which enables drug cloning to thrive.
But Lagos State Medicine Dealers Association (LSMDA) Chairman, Felix Ugbojiaku, says the rescheduled deadline is not feasible either. He tells Assistant Business Editor, KELECHI MGBOJI, that some stakeholders have not shown sufficient commitment, explaining why and how some drugs marked “not for retail” end up in the market.
LSMDA and drug distribution guideline
Sometime in October 2010, Idumota in Lagos was locked down by the Lagos State Taskforce on Counterfeit and Unregistered Premises (that was their language).
They came one early morning and barricaded everywhere with armed police officers and locked our shops. In the course of the struggle to reopen them, we met Tony Hamsat, the then Special Assistant and Adviser on Health to Governor Babatunde Fashola. The man, a pharmacist by profession, refused to meet with us.
Later, the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, and other prominent men intervened. Akiolu summoned all the stakeholders, including the director of pharmaceutical services. The PSN and PCN were also represented. It was agreed that Idumota should be reopened.
Akiolu advised that they should register those qualified to be registered. In other words, he asked stakeholders to sanitise the market by registering those who were supposed to register because his domain must not be denied of pharmaceutical services. That was agreed and consequently our business premises were reopened.
Hamsat, now late, wrote to the PCN telling them that the best thing was to have a mega drug distribution centre. That was his recommendation on the issue concerning Idumota.
He said it was better for a mega drug distribution centre to be established in Lagos and other places to give them the impetus to close open drug market.
We keyed into that when we heard it. Later the federal Ministry of Health came up with the policy. And all agreed to the establishment of the Mega Drug Distribution Centre and other distribution centres.
We approached the Oba of Ojora, Fatai Ojora, and he volunteered some plots of land to us. The documents concerning the parcels of land have been lying on the table of Fashola for the past three years.
We don’t have information on the bottleneck in approving the documents but we are hoping that the government would soon do the things necessary to be done for work to commence on the project.
We are waiting to see what the outcome could be. We don’t want to commence construction without approval. We assure all stakeholders that as soon as approval is given, work will commence immediately.
We have partners who want to build the structure according to international standard. The standard is such that has never been seen anywhere in Africa.
Terms of partnership
We’re going to build but they will assist us in putting up a standard structure that will last the test of time. Our intention is to build a structure that stakeholders will consider benefiting for a mega drug distribution centre.
The project will take off immediately we harmonise the issues relating to the land acquisition.
The delay is not our making. It is caused by bureaucratic bottlenecks. I personally met Fashola a few weeks ago and reminded him. He promised to take another look at it again. Delay in approving land acquisition documents in Lagos is not peculiar to LSMDA. It is a general issue in Lagos.
Other state governments have donated land for building mega drug distribution centres. Here in Lagos, we are not asking for it free of charge. Rather we are asking for relatively low charges because the government ought to make its contribution to the project. But if the government gives it to us free, that will be quite commendable.
This policy is government’s policy, and all we are trying to do is key into it. There ought to be some contribution by the government both at the federal and state levels so that the project will have smooth implementation.
What the government plans to do is shut down open drug markets, which is a move in the right direction. But in doing that, the government wants to give stakeholders a healthy alternative, if not, the implication will be quite devastating.
People in the business are more than 100,000 in Lagos State alone. If the government shuts down the open drug market without providing an alternative, the crime rate will shoot up because the survival instinct in man will compel some of these men to do what they ordinarily would not have done.
This is why we are appealing to all stakeholders to exercise patience and more commitment to the policy, particularly the Lagos State government.
Deadline for drug distribution guideline
The deadline is not feasible. The government and all stakeholders need to look at it again and come up with a more realistic plan. No good mega drug distribution centre has been built anywhere across the federation.
People need some time to actualise this project. It is not an issue of two or three years’ deadline. Five years is not even enough. If there has to be a deadline at all, it has to be 10 years so that a more formidable result will be achieved within the transition period.
The objective may not be achieved if the implementation deadline is within a short period of two or three years. It is a big capital intensive project that requires thorough planning and support of the government.
LSMDA needs the support of the Lagos State government to actualise what its members plan to do.
Between now and five years, we may achieve something great. But if the government decides to rush it, it may turn out counterproductive. The country is undergoing several challenges currently. I think shutting down the open drug market without providing an alternative will not be in the interest of the economy.
In Kano State, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has provided land for a mega drug distribution centre. In Anambra, Governor Willie Obiano is planning to provide land. If he provides land this year, it will take quite some time to complete the main building unless they are not planning to build it to standard.
If they are building to standard, the cost will run into billions of naira. In Lagos State, regarded as the Centre of Excellence, the building has to reflect the spirit and letter of excellence that Lagos represents. This is supposed to be an initiative of the federal and state governments. So we expect the governments to also play their own roles.
Time has to be given for all stakeholders to play their role.
How and why drugs marked ‘not for retail’ end up in the market
As far as free malaria drugs are concerned, you cannot find them among Idumota medicine dealerships. You can find them in Kano, Onitsha, and other places.
Our task force teams are working round the clock and will clamp down on any errant member. They have not seen drugs marked “not for retail” in this domain. The donors of such drugs should write “not for sale” instead.
We know the implication of “not for retail” and that is why we don’t allow such drugs to be sold in any store here in Idumota.
I don’t know what happens in other places, but here in Idumota where I preside as the Chairman of the Island branch of Medicine Dealers Association, I strongly insist that drugs meant for the less privileged must not be sold.
If any of our members stubbornly brings in the drugs for sale in their shops, we lock the shop and invite the company or institution that owns the drugs to come and retrieve them.
Anybody or group who diverts drugs meant for less privileged patients wants them to die. If I am sick and go to hospital, I can afford any bill given to me. But there are millions of people out there who cannot.
Those drugs are meant for them, and they should not be deprived of such opportunities else they may die.
Who to blame for the diversion
The people to blame are those who receive the drugs at the ports and the government agencies concerned.
Let me share this personal experience with the reading public. I have my product, an Amino Acid drug, which I import and has registered with NAFDAC. It is quite good for convalescents, pregnant women, even HIV/AIDS patients. Every Amino Acid formulation is a good product.
Some time ago, I supplied the product to a certain client who I believe supplies to the federal government. The drug is also essential for patients, mainly children and nursing mothers. It was not supposed to be sold in the market.
But after some time, the same drug that I sold to my client who was supposed to supply the government started to surface in the market. I quickly understood that something had gone wrong.
When I accosted one of the dealers, he told me that someone at the Medical Centre in Oshodi, Lagos sold the drug to him but refused to mention the name. I called my client who came and withdrew all the drugs from the dealer’s shop.
But the drug keeps reappearing in the market. At a point, I felt that it might affect the market price as well as my business. I decided to mop up the drug. Yet it kept coming back. When I saw that the expiry date was at hand I stopped.
When you talk of corruption, many people are involved.
Dealers who market certain brands of malaria tablets are suffering similar experience. So we have decided that once we see such products, we quickly inform the owners and they come and evacuate them.
First we lock the shop of any member found selling such products, and then invite the company. It is left for them to decide what to do with the culprit.
In the case of fake drugs, we hand the suspect over to NAFDAC without delay. That is what we do here to ensure sanity.