THE Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Distributors Association of Nigeria (PWDAN) has signed a memorandum of understanding with NETOP Business Consulting Limited, the promoters of the P2P Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Coordination Platform, to enhance the robustness and operation of drug sales and distribution in Nigeria.
Chairman of the association, Mr Ogheneochuko Omaruaye, said the partnership was in line with National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) drive to ensure inclusive, robust, and technology-driven drug distribution and traceability of pharmaceutical products within the Nigerian pharmaceutical supply chain.
Omaruaye, flanked by the association’s general secretary, Mr Olaide Soetan, at a briefing held at the national secretariat of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) in Lagos, said the MoU was a step towards addressing the traceability of pharmaceutical products, an age-long challenge faced by drug distribution in Nigeria.
He said the P2P platform follows the National Drug Distribution Guidelines of the Federal Government and will be a tool to confront the chaotic drug distribution that is responsible for the widespread of fake and substandard medicines within the Nigerian pharmaceutical market.
According to him, “With P2P, I see a properly regulated drug distribution system that allows players to stay on their lanes, not mixing retailing with wholesaling.This has advantages for specialisation, coverage, accessibility and an overall reduction in the cost of business.
“The P2P supply chain coordination platform would improve access by community pharmacists, who are retailers across Nigeria to the large inventories carried by PWDAN members, thereby mitigating the skyrocketing prices of drugs in Nigeria.
“The traceability feature of the P2P platform is in tandem with the NAFDAC’s policy direction for combating the distribution of fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria. It is believed that there would be a workable handshake between the technologies at some point going forward.”
The Managing Director and CEO of NETOP Business Consulting, Mr Cyril Asuku, appreciated PWDAN executive members and reiterated his organisation’s commitment to dependable and reliable technology for distribution in the last 26 years of its operations.
He declared that P2P is a customisation of their pharmaceutical industry solution, ‘Edge,’ which big organisations like MDS use in managing their distribution and the management of several warehouses.
According to him, several financial institutions have integrated with the platform with the aim of providing payment through the wallet system and credit to oil drug distribution, thereby making funds readily available to the manufacturers and importers, with secured loans to expand the inventory of the players on the platform.
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