The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has approved the use of AstraZeneca vaccine in Nigeria.
NAFDAC’s Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye made the announcement during a live briefing today.
She said that the vaccine can be stored at 2 to 8-degree centigrade.
According to the NAFDAC boss, there are three additional vaccines undergoing evaluation, but the evaluation on Astrazeneca shows that the vaccine is effective against the UK variant of the virus which has been reported in Nigeria.
Adeyeye disclosed that the South African variant has not been reported in Nigeria, adding that the agency has over 30 herbal medicine undergoing review for listing.
The NAFDAC DG further said it got the dossier of the vaccine a week ago, and its safety committee went to work immediately to evaluate its safety and efficacy for Nigerians.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, or AZD1222, is a viral vector vaccine recently approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for emergency use.
Scientists used an adenovirus, originally derived from chimpanzees, and modified it with the aim of training the immune system to mount a strong response against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).
The vaccine is believed to have an efficacy of 63.09% against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.
