Efforts Underway to Commence Solidarity Trial of COVID-19 Vaccine in Nigeria – WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO), has said Nigeria has expressed interest to be part of the solidarity trial of vaccine for coronavirus.

WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Fiona Braka, who disclosed this on Thursday at the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 said efforts are underway to commence the trial in the country.

“On the subject of vaccines and clinical trials for COVID-19, I will like to say that research and development is an important aspect of the response and researchers around the world are working hard on accelerating the development of vaccines and therapeutics for Covid-19.

“WHO has launched various working groups to accelerate various aspects of vaccine development.

“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.

“Nigeria has also expressed interest to be part of this solidarity trial and efforts are underway to start the process in Nigeria”, she said.