Lagos Drug Safety in Jeopardy as Pharmacists Sound Alarm Over Manpower Crisis and Regulatory Inaction

Public health safety across Lagos State faces significant exposure to compromised drug quality and unregulated pharmaceutical practices, according to official warnings issued by the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Lagos State branch. The professional body highlighted that a mounting manpower deficit in key regulatory positions, combined with the delayed inauguration of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) Governing Council, has severely eroded oversight mechanisms essential for protecting citizens from dangerous or substandard medicines.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Pharmacy Week in Lagos, PSN Lagos Chairman, Pharm. Olaitan Ogunlade, disclosed that the Directorate of Pharmaceutical Services (DPS) within the Lagos State Ministry of Health is operating under critical staffing constraints. Ogunlade reported that the shortage directly undermines capacity for comprehensive drug inspections, enforcement against counterfeit drug syndicates, and routine monitoring of pharmaceutical premises across the state.

Beyond municipal enforcement gaps, the national regulatory architecture remains severely hampered. The PCN Governing Council has remained un-inaugurated for nearly three years, creating a administrative vacuum that has halted full accreditation for training facilities, stymied disciplinary hearings for errant practitioners, and delayed essential policy decisions under the PCN Act 2022. “In the last three years, vital practice matters and regulatory discipline have suffered,” Ogunlade emphasized, calling on the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to immediately rectify the omission.

The ongoing vacuum reportedly increases the risk of unregistered pharmaceutical outlets proliferating unhindered. Without a fully functional governing body composed of seasoned academics, directors of pharmaceutical services, and regulatory experts, compliance structures across public and private healthcare tiers remain dangerously fragile, leaving consumers vulnerable to substandard healthcare delivery.