Motivated by India's suspension of vaccine deliveries, which is expected to prevent the country from receiving millions of doses as planned at the end of March, Nigeria announces that it is making progress in developing its own vaccine.
In January, Abuja released a $25 million package to develop a vaccine response. Two candidate vaccines are currently under development, according to the presidential task force set up by the federal government.
Boss Mustapha, the head of the presidential task force charged with managing the pandemic and thus the development of the Nigerian vaccine, did not give enough details on the two vaccines being developed by the scientists under his authority. But we do know that clinical trials and certification are imminent.
According to Boss Mustapha, the announcement is intended to "boost the morale and image of the medical industry" in the country. Nigeria is also exploring the possibility of producing it under licence, similar to what India is doing with AstraZeneca.
According to the daily Vanguard, the Nigerian government has partnered with Nile University to produce a national vaccine. In addition, the newspaper says, three federal agencies are involved in research to produce the COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria.
This desire to become a producer is all the more important because the Covax initiative, which is intended to provide vaccines to developing countries, is in trouble. And India has decided to stop exporting, in order to supply its own population first. The country has some industrial capacity and could, like Morocco with Sinopharm, start large-scale production and, if possible, supply the sub-region.
The federal government has so far received only 4 million of the 16 million doses required. Abuja's ambition is to eventually vaccinate 140 out of 200 million people.