The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has approved the production of Chloroquine for clinical trials in a bid to find a cure for coronavirus which has ravaged countries around the world.
NAFDAC’s Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye who made the announcement at the Lagos headquarters of the agency stated that NAFDAC is not approving Chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19 but for clinical trials to find treatment for the virus.
She said;
“In the case of Chloroquine, it has been demonstrated in the literature and with clinical research which is still ongoing, that Chloroquine is superior to the Placebo.
“NAFDAC is not approving Chloroquine as a product that has can be used for Coronavirus because there is no submission to us for registration but because it is under clinical trials, NAFDAC approves medicines meant for clinical trials.
“Therefore the medicine is being approved just for the clinical trials.
“Right now, we have asked one company to make a batch of Chloroquine for the purpose of clinical trial.”
Adeyeye who called on experts and researchers that are interested in doing a clinical trial on Chloroquine to approach approved outlets, urged Nigerians not to use Chloroquine as an anti-malaria drug.
She added;
“Chloroquine is banned for use as anti-malaria.”
Similarly, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control NCDC has warned against the use of Chloroquine for the treatment of Coronavirus.
According to the NCDC, the World Health Organization (WHO) has not approved the use of Chloroquine for the treatment of Coronavirus.
After President Donald Trump on Thursday, March 19th, said that the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of Chloroquine in the treatment of coronavirus, some Nigerians jumped into taking the banned anti-malaria drug to the extent that some of them started suffering from Chloroquine poisoning.
Meanwhile, the United State’s FDA countered Trump on claim of approving the drug for treatment of coronavirus.
Speaking from the same podium at a White House Press Conference, Steven Hahn, the FDA head contradicted Mr Trump, saying the president had “directed us to take a closer took” at whether the drug could help people with coronavirus.
Mr Hahn said; “We want to do that in the setting of a . . . large pragmatic clinical trial to actually gather that information and answer the question that needs to be answered.”
Later, after the press conference, the FDA released a statement saying: “there are no FDA-approved therapeutics or drugs to treat, cure or prevent COVID-19.”
The American regulatory agency added that because chloroquine has been approved for other purposes, doctors are legally allowed to prescribe it for the unapproved or “off-label” use of treating the coronavirus if they want. But its safety and effectiveness has not been proven with regard to the coronavirus.
The FDA further disclosed that they are working with government and academic entities that are investigating whether chloroquine can be used “to treat patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 to potentially reduce the duration of symptoms, as well as viral shedding, which can help prevent the spread of disease.”
