The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, (NAFDAC) said the planned roll-out of coronavirus vaccines in Nigeria, expected to begin in January, would not be subjected to fresh clinical trials before they were administered to Nigerians.
The spokesperson of NAFDAC, Sayo Akintola, made this known in.a chat with newsmen in Abuja.
He said local trials for the vaccine were unnecessary since the vaccine was already certified by the World Health Organisation.
According to him: “The truth is that once a vaccine is approved by the WHO, it is assumed that it has passed through some preliminary stages of the trial.
“It is a known fact that for the WHO to sanction a vaccine, it must have gone through a series of trials here and there.”
He, however, explained that a sample of the vaccine would be taken to the lab for its “safety and efficacy” to be ascertained before administration.
The Nigeria Medical Association had urged the federal government to do its evaluation of the COVID-19 vaccine before administering it on Nigerians.
About 40 million Nigerians, according to reports, might receive the vaccine for free, if it eventually arrived in Nigeria.
This would be in line with the earlier disclosure of President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to proceed with procurement arrangements.
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