A pharmaceutical scientist, Babatunde Aderele, has urged the Federal Government and stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sector to discard the proposed Mega Drug Distribution Centres across the country, saying it won’t address the lingering chaotic supply chain and counterfeit medicines.

According to him, the main reason for the establishment of mega distribution centres was to curb the distribution of adulterated and fake drugs while also eliminating the dominance of unregulated medicine markets in major cities across the country.

The mega distribution centres were equally expected to help to ensure that drugs been sold and used in the country are safe, efficacious and affordable.

Aderele, however, stressed that all the objectives can be achieved without necessarily pumping billions of naira into erecting mega warehouses for visibility sake.

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The pharmacist noted that the emerging global economies are embracing technological applications and devices to advance the health sector, noting that developing countries like Nigeria should also embrace technology.

Aderele made the call during the activation of Altasell Mobile Application at the annual national conference of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, held recently in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

“The distribution network for drugs is not the same as that of sweets or chewing gums. It must be handled in a professional way.

“The federal government has been striving for a while to sanitise the drug distribution system in Nigeria. Consequently, it set a number of good ideas. One of them is the brick-and-mortar distribution centres in select geopolitical zones.

“But I believe with a secured and technologically savvy mobile application that can be effectively monitored by manufacturers, distributors, drugs regulator like NAFDAC and the retailers in the supply chain, we don’t need to build warehouses everywhere. The reason for such structures in the first place was to secure the drugs and have visibility over the chain.

“But in this era of advanced technology, the products are visible for everyone to see, be it the manufacturer, distributor, or retailers.” We just need to embrace technology,” he said.