NAFDAC recomfirms COVID-19 Astrazeneca vaccine safe and efficacious for use, lists 14 Coronavirus herbal medicine

NAFDAC recomfirms COVID-19 Astrazeneca vaccine safe and efficacious for use, lists 14 Coronavirus herbal medicine

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has reconfirmed that said that Astrazeneca vaccine is safe and efficacious for use against COVID-19.

NAFDAC Director General of the agency, Prof. Adeyeye reassured after taking a jab at the agency headquarters in Abuja.

Adeyeye said the agency conducted diligent study on the vaccine and confirmed that it’s safe and efficacious for use against COVID-19.

The DG affirmed that Nigeria will be getting more supply of Astrazeneca from Russian soon.

On the herbal medicines submitted to NAFDAC by traditional medicine practitioners, she said not less than 14 COVID-19 herbal medicines have now been listed for use in country and will now proceed to the next of clinical trials.

“We have approved about 14 COVID-19 herbal medicine for listing, meaning they are now safe for consumption but how efficacious they are is when they undergo clinical trials.

“The government has arranged for research and development scheme and we have a number of herbal medicines that are going to be used for clinical trials. But I will not be surprised if the herbal medicine has anti-viral against COVID-19,” she said.

Speaking on the agency’s acclerated approval of Astrazeneca vaccine, NAFDAC DG said from the record of the clinical trials conducted by the manufacturers and the analysis done by the agency, it’s benefits outweigh the side effects.

As regards concerns about the side-effects, she said only few persons showed some allergy after taking the Astrazeneca vaccine.

She however advised that anyone who gets the vaccine jab should wait for 45 minutes for doctors’ observation before leaving the clinic.

On the Johnson and Johnson vaccines, Adeyeye said, “For Johnson and Johnson, we don’t have the doses yet. I believe that we will do soon. But generally, there is difficulty in accessing COVID-19 vaccine mainly because the rich countries have paid up for it in billions of dollars.

“So, they are the ones getting the vaccines now. If we get the doses, we will study it but we are not likely to get it until the second and third quarter of this year.”

She explained that both Astrazeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccines have same level of efficacy but that the only difference is that Astrazeneca is two doses per individual while Johnson and Johnson is only one shot.

“We are expecting other vaccinnes, such as the Russian and Pfizer Biotech vaccines. We may not have a lot of the Pfizer Biotech but as for Astrazeneca and the Russian vaccine we expect to get enough,” she said.