Why local production of vaccines can’t kick off yet, by FG

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has explained why local production of COVID-19 vaccines cannot start now.

He attributed the delay to government’s inability to procure the required technology for the production.

He however disclosed the N10 billion earmarked by the National Assembly for that purpose is intact.

The Federal Government, he said, is still in talks with local vaccine firm, Bio-Vaccine Nigeria Limited.

Speaking during the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja, Ehanire said: “Nigeria is a 49 percent shareholder in a company called Bio-Vaccine Nigeria Limited, and the bio-vaccine is a revival of the former vaccine plants that the Federal Government used to have, in which the private sector was invited to join and form a special purpose vehicle – a company called Bio-Vaccine. This was conceived before covid-19.

“Now the joint venture was stalled because of the outbreak – when there was a lockdown and when nothing could move. So there was a lot of delay by the company in getting themselves on their feet. With the outbreak of Covid-19, all countries were looking forward to vaccine, including Nigeria.

“In our own home, believing that it is possible to easily find a partner to import the technology to produce our own vaccines here, the National Assembly earmarked N10 billion for the production of vaccines.

“Therefore, the aspiration to produce vaccines has not been fulfilled. It is not that it is abandoned; we are working on it and I have spoken with one of the members of the board of management of the bio-vaccine and we are working on getting that technology to both produce routine vaccines and also COVID-19 vaccines under license and importation of the technology and partnership for it.”

Director General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said Nigeria carries out between 30,000 to 40,000 tests weekly, making it closer to the 2,000,000 test target.

Written By Moses Emorinken, Abuja

Source: The Nation Newspaper

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