The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it will continue hydroxychloroquine clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment despite the suspension of the drug test by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
This was made known by NAFDAC Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye, who stated that such will be concluded within four months. She said;
“I do not know the data that they are looking at, whether it is from the Caucasian population or from the African population. I know that the clinical trial treatment is about to start or have started a few days ago in Lagos.
“When you do clinical trial treatment, there are many factors that can affect the clinical outcome. The way drug is handled even from children from the same mother may be different, not to talk of populations.
“So if the data they are looking at and the reason for suspending the trials is because it is from a Caucasian population, then it may be justified. I don’t think we have data from the African population yet because our genetic makeup is different.
“You can take for example drugs used for Hypertension. There are some drugs that would work for the African American or African population that will not work for the Caucasian population.
“When you are doing Science experiment or clinical trial, you wait for data. Once we start getting our own data in Africa, then we can go one way or the other.”
When asked if Nigeria will continue the clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine, Mojisola Adeyeye replied in the affirmative.