BREAKING: NAFDAC approves AstraZeneca Covid vaccine in Nigeria

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has approved AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine for use in Nigeria, its Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said on Thursday.

With this turn of events, Nigeria stands in a better position in the current battle against the infection of Coronavirus pandemic worldwide.

Top Naija had reported that the Astrazeneca vaccine was newly approved by the World Health Organization for emergency use to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Adeyeye at a press briefing in Abuja said NAFDAC got the dossier of the vaccine a week ago, while its safety committee went to work instantly to assess its safety and effectiveness for Nigerians.

She affirmed that the vaccine could be stored in two to eight degrees Centigrade, also clarified that there were three extra vaccines undergoing evaluation.

As stated by her, the evaluation on Astrazeneca reveals that the vaccine is efficient against the United Kingdom variant of the virus which has been reported in Nigeria.

Adeyeye emphasised that the South African variant has not been reported in Nigeria, while the agency has over 30 herbal medicines going through review for listing.

The Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, codenamed AZD1222, is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca given by intramuscular injection, using as a vector the modified chimpanzee adenovirus ChAdOx1.

One dosing regimen showed 90% efficacy when a half-dose was followed by a full-dose after at least one month, based on mixed trials with no participants over 55 years old.

Another dosing regimen showed 62% efficacy when given as two full doses separated by at least one month.

The research is being done by the Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group with the collaboration of the Italian manufacturer Advent Srl located in Pomezia.

It produced the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine for clinical testing. The team is led by Sarah Gilbert, Adrian Hill, Andrew Pollard, Teresa Lambe, Sandy Douglas and Catherine Green.

On 30 December 2020, the vaccine was approved for use in the UK’s vaccination programme, and the first vaccination outside of a trial was administered on 4 January 2021.