The Ondo State Government has cautioned owners of pharmaceutical and patent medicine stores in the state against sharp practices.

The government also urged them to operate within the law for qualitative healthcare delivery.

The Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Health, Mrs. Folukemi Aladenola, gave the caution Thursday in Akure, after a meeting with the disciplinary panel of the state’s Taskforce on Fake and Counterfeit Drugs.

Aladenola urged owners of Pharmaceutical stores to be supportive of the government’s policies and programs geared toward realizing a healthy state.

The permanent secretary noted that the task force in its just-concluded three-week-long exercise sealed five pharmaceutical stores and 45 patent medicine stores in the state for sharp practices.

She implored drug dealers to always stay on the side of the law, assuring that their businesses would progress unhindered.

Aladenola said the task force would continue to perform its responsibility of ridding the state of fake and counterfeit drugs in the state.

According to her, this will help to achieve the overall qualitative healthcare delivery of the Redeemed Agenda of the Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu-led administration.

Aladenola noted that the sanctions given to the erring drugs sellers were not punitive, but corrective measures that were intended to ensure compliance with the rules and regulations guiding the sales of drugs in the state.

In his remarks, Mr. Eniola Akindeko, the state Chairman of, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), said most of the findings of the task force in the recent exercise bothered on certification.

According to Akindeko, it also bothers on sales of controlled drugs, unhygienic environment for drugs storage, and premise location distance regulations.

Akindeko added that the panel gave the erring drugs sellers sanctions that were minimal, while some of them were asked to obtain court affidavits that they would not continue with the sharp practices they were doing.

“To that extent, we believe that we have significantly educated them on their responsibilities and on what the law expects them to do,’’ he said.

The PSN chairman assured that the task force would sustain the enforcement toward ridding the state of fake and counterfeit drugs.

Also, Mr. Gbenga Lasekan, the Director of Pharmaceutical Services in the ministry, averred that the exercise was not only to regulate but also to ascertain the quality of drugs purchased by the people of the state through testing.

Lasekan said a majority of the drugs passed the test.

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The media report that the task force comprising officials of the Ministry of Health, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), PSN, and the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

Others that made up the task force include the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Nigerian Police Force