Covid19: FG Moves To Find Local Cure

The Federal Government said it has continued to evaluate claims by local researchers that they had manufactured curative drugs for coronavirus (Covid-19), explaining that having met preliminary requirements, the drugs have been forwarded to the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC for ‘Listing’.
This was disclosed Thursday in Abuja during the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce PTF on Covid-19, headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha.
He said; “For some time now, there have been claims of inventions and cures related to COVID-19. The PTF, as part of its mandate, remains supportive of and receptive to outcomes of research. It, however, finds it imperative to reiterate its position on the need for such discoveries to undergo the scientific validation processes.
“The PTF is aware that the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Department, of the Federal Ministry of Health, has been evaluating such claims and forwarded some that have met the preliminary requirements to the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control NAFDAC to carry out the necessary procedures for listing”.
Also, Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said his ministry had just finished a meeting with the Ministry of Science and Technology, “at which their Agencies demonstrated impressive innovative capabilities to participate in finding solutions to our problems of shortages.
“We are convinced that Nigeria has the potential to manufacture many of the commodities we presently import, which presently high global demand also make difficult to come by”, he added.
The ministry had earlier written to NAFDAC on the “formulation of a phytomedicine based cough mixture/syrup” for the management of Covid-19.
In the letter, the ministry noted that Nigeria is blessed with medicinal plants which could be exploited and expressed happiness that its Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Department TCAM has taken the pains to research into scientific materials to come up with a formulation intended for the management of cough in COVID-19 and other cough related infections.