Nigeria to be part of clinic trials of COVID-19 vaccines - WHO

The World Health Organization, WHO, has said that Nigeria has expressed interest to be part of the clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines.

Fiona Braka, the head of the WHO in Nigeria made this known in Abuja while speaking at the daily press briefing organized by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.

She also revealed that about a 100 countries have expressed interest in the vaccines which will be shared equitably.

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,” Braka said.

“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.”