The call was made at the fourth Thematic General Assembly of the African Pharmaceutical Distribution Association (APDA), organised in collaboration with the Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Distributors Association of Nigeria (PWDAN) in Lagos. The theme of the assembly was "Advancing Pharmaceutical Distribution in Africa: Building secure supply chains against falsified medicines." PWDAN Chairman Ogheneochuko Omaruaye stated that poorly structured distribution systems remained a major challenge in Nigeria's pharmaceutical supply chain.
Omaruaye noted that distributors play a critical role in safeguarding the medicine supply chain and that PWDAN had continued to engage government and regulatory agencies, including the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), on the implementation of the guideline. He said full implementation would ensure manufacturers and distributors are properly recognised and regulated while limiting the entry of unregulated players into the medicine supply system.
However, Omaruaye identified inadequate government resources as a constraint to the implementation of the guideline, urging the government to revisit the guideline and provide the support required for its implementation. He also called for government backing for distributors seeking to strengthen self-regulation, noting that pharmaceutical distribution covered medicines, medical devices and hospital consumables.
Vice President, Central Africa, APDA, Dr Yolande Djomo, said distributors across the continent faced similar challenges, including falsified medicines, informal markets, weak regulatory controls and inadequate supply-chain infrastructure. She said the assembly provided an opportunity for distributors to exchange experiences and develop solutions to challenges affecting medicine distribution and public health.
Djomo noted that Nigeria, Cameroon and Congo faced similar problems with informal markets and infiltration of substandard and falsified medicines. She added that distributors were exploring artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and strengthen supply-chain security. She also identified Cameroon’s porous borders and more than 1,000-kilometre border network as factors facilitating the entry of substandard medicines.
Director, Inspection, Monitoring and Quality Assurance Unit, Lagos, PCN, Solomon Shiihii, stressed that maintaining medicine quality after products leave manufacturers was equally important. He said potency loss could occur silently but has serious consequences for patients, making compliance with Good Storage and Distribution Practice essential. Shiihii called for continuous training and retraining of personnel, saying distributors needed adequate financial resources, competent staff and appropriate facilities to maintain quality systems.
Shiihii described Nigeria as Africa’s largest pharmaceutical market, placing a major responsibility on the country to improve medicine access and distribution. He identified open drug markets, overlapping regulatory mandates, price sensitivity, inadequate storage facilities in some public institutions and procurement challenges among factors affecting the pharmaceutical supply chain. To address these challenges, he urged stakeholders to focus on practical implementation of good distribution practices, strengthen data systems and develop measurable performance indicators to monitor supply-chain outcomes.
Key points
- Pharmacists are calling for the full implementation of the National Drug Distribution Guideline to strengthen Nigeria's medicine supply chain.
- The guideline aims to curb the circulation of falsified and substandard medicines in Nigeria.
- Distributors play a critical role in safeguarding the medicine supply chain and require government support to strengthen self-regulation.
