According to World Health Organisation (WHO), Nigeria is interested in being part of the global Coronavirus drug trial process that will soon be initiated.
The officer in charge of WHO Nigeria, Fiona Braka, said during a press conference on May 1 that more than 100 countries are part of the solidarity clinical trial and more than 1,200 patients have been sampled from the first five countries to determine the safety and potency of drug combinations.
Braka also revealed that 89 vaccines are being developed worldwide. She said: “Nigeria has also expressed interest to be part of this solidarity trial and efforts are underway to start the process in Nigeria too.
“Together with global health actors and partners, over the past week, WHO launched the access to COVID-19 tools ACT accelerator, a global collaboration to accelerate development for equitable access to new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
“We have a total of 89 vaccines that are in development globally, including seven in clinical evaluation and several therapeutics are in clinical trials. WHO is committed to ensuring that as medicines and vaccines are developed, they are shared equitably with all countries and people.
“We do have the solidarity trial which is an international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19, launched by the WHO and partners. More than 100 countries have joined the solidarity trial and to date, over 1,200 patients have been randomized from the first five countries to evaluate the safety and efficacy of full drug and drug combinations.”
In a bid to subdue coronavirus pandemic, the WHO started trials for drugs like remdesivir, hydroxychloriquine and chloroquine phosphate last month.
