While India has suspended vaccine deliveries, which should prevent Nigeria from receiving several million doses as planned at the end of March, the country announced this week that it was making progress in developing its own vaccine. In January, Abuja released $ 25 million to develop a local vaccine response. Currently, two vaccine candidates are being developed according to the president’s working group set up by the federal state.
Boss Mustapha, the head of the president’s working group responsible for dealing with the pandemic, gives few details about the two vaccines developed by Nigerian researchers. We only know that clinical trials and certifications are yet to come.
But the announcement aims, in the official’s words, to “increase morale and image for the medical industry” in the country. Nigeria, which released $ 25 million in January to develop a vaccine, is also exploring the possibility of producing it under license, much like India does with AstraZeneca.
The country has some industrial capacity and can, like Morocco with Sinopharm, go into large-scale production. This desire to become a producer is all the clearer because the Covax initiative, which is intended to supply vaccines to developing countries, is in the dark, while India has decided to stop its exports in order to supply its citizens first.
Aubuja has so far received four of the planned sixteen million doses. Nigeria’s ambition is to eventually vaccinate 140 of its 200 million inhabitants.
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