The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has urged Nigerians who claim to have drugs that can treat coronavirus to submit it for internationally recognized process of approval through pre-clinical trials.
A statement on Wednesday by its Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, reads thus:
”The Agency continues to encourage all stakeholders to present the products of their research findings and allow these remedies go through internationally recognized process of approval through pre-clinical and where applicable, clinical trials.”
“A claim of a cure must be subjected to clinical evaluation through well-controlled, randomized clinical trials following an approved clinical trial protocol,” Adeyeye said.
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“The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) as at the time of this press release has only received application from one company for a product the company is presenting (for approval) to the Agency for the treatment of the symptoms of Covid-19, and not for the cure of Covid-19 as a disease,” she said.
The agency, while admitting that “Africa as a continent is blessed with diverse plants and herbs that constitute a source of food and medicine”, however, noted that “many plants are similarly very poisonous.”
“The drugs of today’s modern society are products of research and development by major pharmaceutical companies”, it said, adding that:” Among the most important raw materials researched and developed are naturally occurring materials obtained especially from plants.”
