Chloroquine has been approved for clinical trials by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in the search for a cure for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Afriupdate reports.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed this in Lagos on Friday March 20th.
“NAFDAC is not approving Chloroquine as a product that can be used for coronavirus because there is no submission to us for registration but because it is under clinical trials, NAFDAC approves medicines meant for clinical trials,” Adeyeye said at the agency’s headquarters in Nigeria’s commercial capital.
“Therefore the medicine is being approved just for the clinical trials.”
She also said, “Right now, we have asked one company to make a batch of Chloroquine for the purpose of clinical trial,”
Recall that US President, Donald Trump, on Thursday suggested that Chloroquine could treat Coronavirus.
Trump, in a White House briefing, said the anti-malaria drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, had shown “tremendous promise.”
“I think it’s going to be very exciting,” he said. “I think it could be a game changer, and maybe not.”
But no drug has been approved to treat the new coronavirus.
It is understood that doctors around the world have been desperately administering an array of medicines in search of something to help patients, especially those who are severely ill, according to a New York Times report.
To date, more than 233 cases of the new coronavirus have been registered in sub-Saharan Africa and four people have died, making it the least-affected region in the world.
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