From Doris Obinna and Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has approved Astrazeneca vaccine for use in Nigeria.
Director General of NAFADC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, told journalists at a press conference in Abuja, on Thursday, that it took the Agency 11 days to complete the work on the vaccine and certify it safe for use in Nigeria.
She recalled that Astrazeneca vaccine was recently approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for emergency use, and NAFDAC got the dossier of the vaccine a week ago, after which their safety committee went to work immediately to evaluate it’s safety and efficacy for Nigerians.
She said: “We received the vaccine on February 10th, 2021. We gave it expedited review because it has gotten approval by WHO, UK and Canada. It took about a week before the approval. But the story may be different for other vaccines.”
She disclosed that the vaccine can be stored at two to 8-degree centigrade, adding that “There are three additional vaccines undergoing evaluation, but the evaluation on Astrazeneca shows that the vaccine is effective against the UK variant of the virus which has been reported in Nigeria. The South African variant has not been reported in Nigeria.”
