The Federal Government Tuesday stated reasons Nigerians should embrace locally made vaccines for the cure of the deadly coronavirus in the country.
According to him, the cures for COVID-19 may not be available until, towards the end of 2021.
It explained that Nigeria, like the rest of the world, have turned to homegrown solutions to treat patients who have tested positive to the virus.
Mr Boss Mustapha, Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, disclosed this at the daily briefing of the task force on Tuesday.
Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, appealed to Nigeria’s homegrown researchers and those that are involved in finding a cure for the virus to be patient and subject their drugs through the protocol of validation.
He said if the locally made vaccines or drugs are found fit for human consumption or administration, they would receive the appropriate certification.
Mustapha said: “Ordinarily, from the little literature I have read on COVID 19, is that we are not expecting any vaccine to be on the shelves until towards the end of 2021. That is for industries that have perfected the processes of manufacturing of this vaccine.
“We are so much in a hurry to obtain a homegrown cure and all the countries of the world are doing similar things – trying to abridge even the processes of the trial to shorten the time.
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“My encouragement to our people, to our researchers and those that are involved in the processes of manufacturing drugs, especially our home-grown cure, they should be patient and they should run it through a process. That is the only way we can have it validated.
“My appeal to our homegrown researchers and those that are involved is: let them be patient, let them go through the protocol of validation so that at the end of it if they drugs or their syrup or whatever they produce is found fit for human consumption or administration, they will receive the appropriate certification.”