In my estimation, there is nothing wrong with a vaccine trial in human. In fact, trials are beneficial to all, whether White, Black, Africans, Europeans, Asia etc.
Without Vaccine trial in human, we may not know potency and efficacy. #VaccinesWork #COVID19
Without Vaccine trial in human, we may not know potency and efficacy. #VaccinesWork #COVID19
What is wrong in Vaccine Trial is when the intent is driven by a perception that the population for the trials are sub-human. Just like the poorly thought French 'doctor' Dr. Jean-Paul Mira, Head of Intensive care, Cochin hospital, Paris, France. #COVID19
In his words “If I can be provocative, shouldn't we be doing this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatments, no resuscitation?...
... A bit like as it is done elsewhere for some studies on Aids. In prostitutes, we try things because we know that they are highly exposed and that they do not protect themselves.”
Let's mark Dr Jean-Paul Mira last STATEMENT.
"They [AFRICA] do not protect themselves". #COVID19
Let's mark Dr Jean-Paul Mira last STATEMENT.
"They [AFRICA] do not protect themselves". #COVID19
In the UK, Oxford-led Scientists kicked off #COVID19 potential vaccine trial on humans. The UK government warns it could have to rely on social distancing measures until next year assuming no vaccine or treatment is found before then.
Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, said she is "80% confident" that the vaccine being developed by her team would work. It is hoped about a million doses could be ready by September.
The name of the potential vaccine is "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19,"
The name of the potential vaccine is "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19,"
The Oxford vaccine candidate, called "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19", is made from a harmless chimpanzee virus.
"Vaccines made from the ChAdOx1 virus have been given to more than 320 people to date & have been shown to be safe and well-tolerated, although they can cause temporary side effects, such as a temperature, headache or sore arm," according to the University of Oxford.
The United States is also on Vaccine Trial, the same is applicable to Germany and many other countries.
In Africa, we are waiting for the food to be prepared for us and then serve to us.
In Africa, we are waiting for the food to be prepared for us and then serve to us.
On 02/03/20, Prof. Maurice Iwu, said his team Bioresources Development Group has a new drug project with potential treatment for the novel Coronavirus.
In my estimation, it would be highly significant @NigeriaGov @PTFCOVID19 @NCDCgov to update Nigerians on Prof. Iwu's discovery.
In my estimation, it would be highly significant @NigeriaGov @PTFCOVID19 @NCDCgov to update Nigerians on Prof. Iwu's discovery.
Here is Prof. Maurice Iwu's Speech in a meeting with Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science & Tech.
Hon. Minister, Sir, I am here to formally brief you about our drug discovery project, which has led to the identification of a potential treatment agent for Coronavirus infections.
Hon. Minister, Sir, I am here to formally brief you about our drug discovery project, which has led to the identification of a potential treatment agent for Coronavirus infections.
You will recall that on 23rd July 2018 you presented to scientists of the Bioresources Institute of Nigeria (BION) patent certificates granted by the Trade Mark, Patent and Design Registry facilitated by the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP)
The three patents granted to us (NG/P/2015/84; NG/P/2015/85; and NG/P/2015/97) were based on discoveries from the natural products drug screening programme at Bioresources Institute of Nigeria (BION) focused on Neglected Tropical Diseases, Emergent Infections and Orphan Diseases
The lead drug discovery project includes the chemical isolation and characterization of naturally occurring compounds and subjecting them to a battery of bioassays for the identification of potentially useful drug-lead molecules.
Our approach is the use of a network of eminent scientists and leading laboratories to target particular diseases, especially neglected tropical, emergent diseases and orphan diseases such as Leishmaniasis, Ebola virus,
Dengue fever virus, Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), Coronavirus and Tacaribe virus; and chronic metabolic diseases such diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases.
Your Excellency will recall that when the Ebola virus infection broke out in 2014 many people were surprised that our research group had an experimental lead compound that was identified 15 years earlier in 1999.
And now with the emergence of a novel Coronavirus in 2019 as Covid – 19 we had identified and patented a possible treatment back in 2015. It is very important that we must remain ahead of these emergent infections through research.
The other aspect of our work targets the so-called orphan diseases; these are rare diseases (diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people), or
disease that has not been adopted by the pharmaceutical industry because it provides little financial incentive for the private sector to make and market new medications to treat or prevent them, and/ or diseases that affect mainly the poor.
The drug discovery project was started at the University of Nigeria Nsukka where I was a Professor of Pharmacognosy and continued in America when I was a visiting scholar at the Division of Experimental Therapeutics of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington DC. USA
(1994 -2003). It was reactivated in 2014/2015 during the Ebola Virus epidemic and we collaborated actively with leading laboratories from different parts of the world,
which led to the confirmation of the anti-Ebola virus activity of three structurally characterized compounds from Nigerian plants which were subsequently granted patent protection by the Federal Government of Nigeria - (NG/P/2015/84; NG/P/2015/85; and NG/P/2015/97).
During the antiviral bioassays in 2014-2015 it was discovered that the compounds exhibited significant antiviral activity against the SARS – Coronavirus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Coronavirus).
One of the test compounds (BION -3) has an EC50 of 1.2 µg/ml in the Visual (cytopathic effect/toxicity) assay and 1.1 µg/ml in the Neutral Red (cytopathic effect/toxicity) bioassay against SARS Coronavirus.
We have concluded arrangements with the Antiviral Program of the US National Institute of Health (US-NIH) to subject the compound to bioassay against the Wuhan Coronavirus (Also known as Covid – 19, 2019-nCoV or 2019 Novel Coronavirus).
On Thursday 27th February 2020, the Bioresources Institute of Nigeria, executed a Non-Clinical Evaluation Agreement (NCEA) with the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID), part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID),
an institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is a component of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an agency of the U.S. Government.
The lead compound is one of the most studied natural products in history with a remarkable high safety profile. Its pharmacokinetics profile and putative mechanism of action are being reviewed.
We have under consideration possible dosage forms including a combination product formulation of the three agents (Rhygyfyn) described in our patents as broad spectrum antiviral drug, identified and developed here in Nigeria.
We are set to introduce the products but our only limitation is finance. As you well know, science is a very expensive undertaking. We have been fortunate in the past to have benefitted from the generous support of governments, the United Nations Agencies, and
philanthropic minded individuals and corporate organizations who appreciated the strategic importance of our corporate mission of conducting “Science for Humanity”. I will like to plead with you to use your good office to kindly appeal to Nigerians for their support.
Honourable Minister, it is important to note that Covid -19 belongs to a class of viruses that are very common, some more serious than others, the class includes the flu virus, SARS, and MERS.
They are RNA viruses, which allow them to mutate easily and spread between species. SARS and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) Coronaviruses are more lethal than Covid – 19. We are willing to make available the lead compounds and the phytomedicine
(IHP – Detox Tea, NAFDAC listed) which contain the active molecule, a bicyclic diterpenoid lactone for possible evaluation by other laboratories with appropriate testing facility both in Nigeria and overseas.
Bioresources Institute of Nigeria (BION) is a member of the Bioresources Development Group (BDG), an independent biosciences research and development organization that cultivates, processes and produces medicines, nutraceuticals and cosmetics from natural products.
BDG is probably the largest private research organization in Africa devoted to natural products research and development. Our focus is on neglected tropical diseases, emergent infections and orphan diseases.
We operate four organic farms in different parts of Nigeria; the International Center for Ethnomedicine and Drug Development (Intercedd) at Nsukka; and a cGMP level Bioprocessing Centre at Umuna-Okigwe, Imo State.
We have successfully researched and identified 16 lead drug candidates and developed 22 phytomedicines, including the antiulcer agent Syferol - IHP which was clinically evaluated at Nnamdi Azikiwe College of Medicine for the treatment of gastric ulcers,
Physogen for the control of diabetes and Immunovit – IHP for promotion of immune health and management of cancers and chronic diseases We have authored four books on medicinal plants, including the highly cited “Handbook of African Medicinal Plants”,
(Taylor and Francis, First Edition 1994; Second Edition 2014) and “Food as Medicine - Functional Food Plants of Africa”, (2016). In collaboration with Rev. Fr. Anselm Adodo (of Pax Herbal Clinics, Ewu Monastry, Edo State) we have recently written a book on
“Healing Plants of Nigeria - Ethnomedicine and Therapeutic Applications” (Taylor and Francis, 2020), which documents the extensive information on Nigerian herbs and presents to the global audience the rich ethnomedical atlas of Nigeria and the many healing plants of our people.
The U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) conducted a case study on BDG for its pioneering efforts to mainstream African traditional medicine into modern health-care and economy in its publication entitled “Traditional Medicine as a Tonic for Development”.
The Economic Development Institute of the World Bank also produced a documentary video ‘Global Links: Nature’s Pharmacy’ that documents the research on medicinal plants at Intercedd laboratory at Nsukka.
The essential point here is that we are not reacting to the current Covid – 19 emergency but briefing you on our work on drug discovery for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Emergent Infections and Orphan Diseases.
The need for constant and continuous research on neglected tropical diseases, emergent infections and orphan diseases can never be emphasized enough in terms of advancement of science generally and medicaments, methods and
practices of health care delivery in particular, as diseases and public health crises may occur at any time often without discernible warnings. It is at the time of urgent and emergent public health crises
such as epidemics and pandemics that the advantage of preparing for the unknown and unexpected in advance pays lifesaving dividends beyond what any sporadic or reactive measures can ever provide.
It is in the light of this that we must credit collaborators and other donors for the substantial financial contribution made to our group in 2014/ 2015 for the development of prophylactic and curative Phytomedicines in the treatment of Ebola and other viral diseases.
The wisdom of such contributions of funds to a private group of researchers was not always obvious until a crisis of the nature of the coronavirus epidemics and other pandemics that occur and the fruits of such public investments become openly and publicly apparent.
Based on the international collaboration approach which I mentioned earlier, we have initiated contact with other laboratories to accelerate the bulk extraction, purification and isolation of the compounds.
While the Ministry of Health, NCDC (Nigeria Centre for Disease Control) and our healthcare professionals are actively engaged in providing treatment and support for the management of the Coronavirus infection,
it is important to indicate that the Nigerian scientific community are making contributions towards finding a sustainable treatment for the prevention and/or treatment of Wuhan Coronavirus (Also known as Covid – 19)
as part of drug discovery prog. for negelected tropical diseases, emergent infections and orphan diseases. For this, we must remain grateful to the Federal Government under both former Pres. Goodluck Jonathan and current Pres. Mohammadu Buhari; & of course you Sir, the Minister
Nigeria and Africa need to urgently mobilize African scientist to get to work.
Testing, Testing and Testing is not enough in the fight against #COVID19
Indigenous scientific clinical research can sustain our efforts in protecting our people- protecting Africans.
Testing, Testing and Testing is not enough in the fight against #COVID19
Indigenous scientific clinical research can sustain our efforts in protecting our people- protecting Africans.
