FLASHBACK: How Nigerian drug stores sell drugs beyond expiry dates.
With a doctor’s prescription in hand, the reporter walked into a pharmacy to buy some antibiotics.
Unlike the reporter, Yinka Taiwo did not check the expiry date on the drug she bought to treat a “splitting headache.”“I walked into a pharmacy in Abeokuta and bought paracetamol, anti-malaria drug, and multivitamins. The Nigerian health authorities had mainly focused on the fight against fake and substandard drugs. But Nigerians also want the agencies in charge of drug monitoring and control to look into the widespread sale of expired drugs across the country.
“I stopped patronising that pharmacy as I cannot guarantee the standard of the drugs sold there,” he said. “It was then that I discovered that the product was expired. I complained, but the hospital told me that when a product expires, it can still be used within six months after the expiration date. Narrating his experience, Maikano Abdullahi said he once bought some drugs, alongside a friend, at Kasuwan Barcci in Kaduna. They also noticed that the expiry dates were all altered.
The UN health agency said expired drugs must be disposed of safely without harming people and the environment. However, a report by the Harvard Health Publishing – Harvard Medical School said most times, expiration dates on drugs do not necessarily mean that the drugs are no longer fit for consumption.
The report, however, said a research conducted by the FDA for the military, found out that 90 per cent of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over the counter, were perfectly good for use even 15 years after expiration date. “It is not that it is intentional. It is either they forgot or sometimes the drugs might be rare drugs which the pharmacy bought for keep in case it is demanded and this can make them forget until there is a demand for it,” he said.“The sale of the expired drug is not good or the agreed norm and the association does not support that.
He advised Nigerians to always purchase their drugs from registered pharmacists, and not patent medicine stores. “A drug that expires is not just about the date. It is about wholesomeness. If a drug is meant to be yellow, and it currently blue, pink or black; automatically, your mind will tell you there is something wrong and you assume the drug is not wholesome. As such, the drug should be treated as expired,” he said.He said there is a central collection point for expired drugs, where expired drugs are collected from pharmacies and disposed of.
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