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| Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus |
The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday said efforts were being made to integrate Nigeria into the countries undertaking clinical trials for effective treatment coronavirus (COVID-19).
The world health body also said it was working with health actors and partners around the globe to develop effective vaccines to combat the COVID-19 infection in the shortest possible time.
Speaking at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, the representative of WHO, Dr. Fiona Braka, said: โWe do have the solidarity trials which is an international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19, launched by the WHO and partners.
โMore than 100 countries have joined the solidarity trial. Till date, over 1,200 patients have been randomised from the first five countries to evaluate the safety and efficacy of drug combinations.
โNigeria has also expressed interest to be part of this solidarity trials and efforts are underway to start the process in Nigeria.
โThe process itself for the certification of vaccines is a very rigorous and thorough process because we aim to ensure that products that are approved for use meet the safety requirements.
โTill date, we do not yet have a vaccine. The trials are underway in a very accelerated process.
โIt usually takes years to produce a vaccine but the emergency process currently ongoing is really aiming to get a vaccine out as soon as possible for the protection of people.
โResearchers around the world are working hard on accelerating the development of vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19.โ
She added: โWHO has launched various working groups to accelerate various aspects of vaccines development. A call was made by 130 scientists and manufacturers to help speed up the availability of vaccines for COVID-19.
โTogether with global health actors and partners, WHO launched the access to COVI-19 tools (ACT); a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
โWe have a total of 89 vaccines that are in development globally, including 7 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.
โOnce the product is submitted to WHO for review, there is a detailed process for pre-qualification that includes the review of all the data on the clinical trials that are expected and that these data should meet the global standards.
โWe work with national regulatory authorities on assessment, licensure and post-marketing surveillance. All these are important before a vaccine is actually approved.โ
