The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has ruled out the possibility of conducting a local clinical trial on the proposed N400bn vaccines before administering them on Nigerians.
The agency said since the World Health Organisation had approved the vaccines there might not be need to conduct another clinical trial on the vaccines.
It, however, said it would subject vaccines, which the Federal Government may likely spend N400bn to procure, to proper revalidation before administering them on Nigerians.
Speaking with Sunday Punch on Friday, NAFDAC’s Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, told one of Punch correspondents that owing to the exigencies of COVID-19, there may be no reason to conduct a trial before administering the vaccines.
“Once the vaccine arrives, a sample will be taken to the lab for a test. Once its safety and efficacy are certified by NAFDAC, it will be administered on Nigerians. We don’t expect anything to be different though.
“The truth is that once a vaccine is approved by the WHO, it is assumed that it has passed through some preliminary stage of the trial. It is a known fact that for the WHO to sanction a vaccine, it must have gone through a series of trial here and there,” he said.
Although he said NAFDAC’s evaluation of the vaccine would not be rigorous mainly because it’s not a new vaccine, Akintola noted that its efficacy and safety needed to be ratified.
– Punch
to the Nigerian health authorities. Please do not put the good health of your populations at risk with this vaccine. The agenda behind this is to decimate Africa.Please avoid the corruption in order to save Africa. Remember the Trojan War.Medical experts and scientists around the world are against this vaccine and you agree to it trusting the Who. African leaders, how can you be such betrayers?