Chloroquine
As researchers around the world search for a cure for the coronavirus outbreak, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control ( NAFDAC ) has approved the production of Chloroquine for clinical trials.
The Director-General of the agency, Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed this on Friday.
The DG said that the agency is not approving Chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19 but for clinical trials to find cure for the virus.
She said “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,” Adeyeye said. She, therefore, called on experts and researchers that are interested in doing a clinical trial on Chloroquine to approach approved outlets.
Adeyeye further said “Right now, we have asked one company to make a batch of Chloroquine for the purpose of the clinical trial.
You will recall that the U.S President, Donald Trump on Thursday announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is making experimental drugs — including those used for treating malaria — available as part of the ongoing effort to tackle the spread of the coronavirus.
Trump announced at a White House press briefing that chloroquine, a drug designed for use in malaria, has been FDA approved and will be made available by prescription “almost immediately.”
He said it was one of a number of antiviral therapies to limit the symptoms of the virus that the administration is trying to get to Americans as quickly as possible.
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