The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has approved the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria.
Dr. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of NAFDAC, diclosed this during a live briefing on Thursday, noting that the vaccine can be stored at 2 to 8-degree centigrade.
She said that there are three additional vaccines undergoing evaluation, but the evaluation on Astrazeneca shows that the vaccine is effective against the UK variant of the virus which has been reported in Nigeria.
The NAFDAC boss disclosed that the South African variant has not been reported in Nigeria, adding the agency has over 30 herbal medicine undergoing review for listing.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was recently approved by the W.H.O for emergency use, in a press briefing, NAFDAC says it got the dossier of the vaccine a week ago, and the NAFDAC safety committee went to work immediately to evaluate its safety and efficacy for Nigerians.
Also known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, or AZD1222, the xford/AstraZeneca is a viral vector vaccine and scientists used an adenovirus, originally derived from chimpanzees, and modified it with the aim of training the immune system to mount a strong response against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).