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It is no longer news that pharmaceutical products, genuine and counterfeit are openly sold and marketed in the streets, markets, private and public places and un-licensed outlets across in Nigeria. 
What is rather baffling and worrisome is how those involved in the trade have been able to so successfully sustain it under the noses of relevant government agencies including the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) and in Lagos, the ministry of health, which appear to be giving it a fight. 
Last week, the Lagos task force on counterfeit drugs and unwholesome foods decided to go to town, sealing off at the end of its operations 19 patent stores in Bariga area of the state. It quickly followed up with a clampdown on another six pharmaceutical stores in Epe, bringing to 26 the number of outlets shut by the task force in less than two weeks. 
The closure of the patent medicine stores was barely three weeks after the inspection and enforcement committee of the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) had shut down four drug manufacturing companies in Lagos. The manufacturing firms received the heavy harmer for failure to comply with rules and regulations guiding manufacturing and distribution of drugs in the country which they agreed to uphold. 
Chairman of the committee, Paul Gar, while briefing the media in Lagos had listed the companies’ offences to include distribution of drugs through un-licensed channels to a breach of regulations on documentation. Specifically, the companies failed to keep accurate records of sources, weight, measurement of raw materials as well as other aiding and verifiable records to ascertain the genuineness of their products.  
According to Gar, a visit to about 14 pharmaceutical firms in Lagos revealed most of them were doing the same thing, noting that the “committee would have had to apply sanctions to virtually all the companies visited so far if the rules were applied strictly”. 
Gar said in the years ahead the committee would be shifting focus to imported drugs into the country as well as wholesale and retail shops but lamented that the law for now only allowed the committee to inspect and monitor registered and licensed pharmaceutical outlets. 
Some weeks ago, NAFDAC had intercepted container loads of counterfeit anti-malaria pharmaceutical products estimated at millions of naira, one of the agency’s largest seizures in recent times. 
The Lagos task force, in addition to closing down the pharmacy stores, also arrested eight suspects in Bariga and four in Epe for offences contrary to the provisions of the law on the operation of patent medicine stores in the state. The offences as listed by the task force include sale of drugs without licence, refusal to adhere to the mandated distance between a patent medicine shop and market place as stipulated by the law, as well as the distribution of counterfeit drugs. 
Jide Idris, Lagos commissioner for health, told the media while explaining the role of the task force that the action became inevitable because of the danger posed by the activities of illegal and unregistered drug sellers who put the lives of unsuspecting members of the public at risk.  
It is therefore not surprising that the Lagos State Government and NAFDAC have to collaborate against the circulation of counterfeit drugs and unwholesome food items in the system. 
In line with this, the state is planning to forward a bill to the House of Assembly for consideration, which when passed into law, will make it a criminal offence to hawk or sell drugs in open streets. 
In Lagos as indeed it is in some parts of the country, drugs are openly marketed and sold in streets, public places, commercial buses and even in schools by unqualified personnel who see this as a lucrative business. Findings show that majority of those involved in the trade are school dropouts and people out of employment. 
As observed by Paul Orhii, the director-general of NAFDAC, the scope of the illicit business is alarming and deep rooted, listing Mushin, Idumota and Agege in Lagos, Aba in Abia, Onitsha in Anambra and Kano State as areas where persistent effort must be made to stamp out the trade. 
Governor Babatunde Fashola, while playing host to Orhii, during the recent visit of the NAFDAC boss to Lagos, agreed his administration would look into existing laws regarding the sale of drugs with a view to making necessary amendments which when passed by the legislature would check the activities of persons not authorised to be in the business. 
The governor said NAFDAC has done a commendable job but added that more needed to be done given the danger involved in the consumption of unwholesome and counterfeit drugs. The state, he assured would parley with the agency to try to stamp out the menace.  
Besides assisting NAFDAC in area of publicity and advocacy via the state owned Lagos Television (LTV) and Radio Lagos which will run free jingles, Lagos is also to assist in the area of office accommodation.