The Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) has begun licensing individuals and facilities selling medicines on social media and other online platforms, in a bid to regulate the fast-growing trade in internet-based drug sales.
PCN Registrar and Chief Executive Officer Ibrahim Ahmed said in Abuja on Wednesday that the move responds to a trend that surged during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued ever since. He explained that the PCN Establishment Act 2022 anticipated the need to regulate electronic pharmacy services and online medicine sales, providing the legal basis for the current licensing drive.
“We have commenced the licensing of facilities involved in the sale of medicines,” Ahmed said.
To address the challenge of borderless digital platforms, PCN has engaged Interpol for cross-border enforcement. Many online sellers have no physical location and operate beyond national boundaries, Ahmed noted. Interpol’s global reach across 194 countries enables it to take down non-compliant websites, and PCN has already used this partnership to shut down one such platform.
Inspections of online pharmacies involve IT experts to examine both the visible and backend operations of a platform, Ahmed explained. The backend must be supervised by a licensed pharmacist before any facility is approved.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is working in line with PCN’s efforts. Its Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye, said the agency began licensing online drug vendors two years ago. She recalled that NAFDAC intercepted a falsified anti-cancer drug about 18 months ago after receiving intelligence that led to an arrest in the southern part of the country.
Adeyeye added that NAFDAC staff will undergo training in September on new technology to track and trace online medicine sales more effectively.
