The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has ordered drug manufacturing companies in Nigeria to immediately commence the production of chloroquine for the treatment of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye disclosed this in a statement issued on Monday.
According to the statement, the drug that became well-known for being an anti-malaria drug is now being repurposed for use in the treatment of COVID-19, which has already infected 111 Nigerians as of Sunday, March 29.
She said the clinical trials of chloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 would commence in Lagos, the epicentre of the disease in Nigeria.
“Other researchers in France, US have used the drug for the clinical trial treatment of COVID-19 and they reported effectiveness of the drug. Lagos State will be starting a clinical trial on chloroquine to evaluate the effectiveness.
“In a very recent publication, chloroquine was reported in a press briefing by the State Council of China, indicating that chloroquine phosphate had demonstrated marked efficacy and acceptable safety in treating COVID-19 associated pneumonia in a multi-center clinical trials conducted in China.
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“The study involved 10 hospitals in Wuhan, Jingzhou, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Ningbo, and 100 patients. The investigators reported that Chloroquine phosphate is superior to the control in inhibiting the pneumonia associated with COVID-19, and shortening the course of the disease,” the NAFDAC boss said.
She disclosed, “About four weeks ago, I approached a local manufacturing company (May and Baker), a member of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (PMGMAN), whose flagship product in the past was chloroquine to make a batch of the drug for emergency stock.
“The company had NAFDAC approval for the production of the drug as antimalarial many years ago before the discontinuation.
“The Managing Director expressed possible difficulty in getting the API due to the fact that the drug has been discontinued. He called shortly after that he was able to get the API and was asked to manufacture a batch for emergency stock just in case more people become exposed and infected with the virus. The batch has been manufactured and the company plans to make more batches if needed.”
Adeyeye urged members of the public to “desist from its use without the guidance of a medical doctor or clinician for cases of clinical trial treatment of COVID-19”.
The NAFDAC boss stressed that side effects of the drug include gastrointestinal upset, blurred vision, headache, and pruritis (itching), noting that prolonged use could also cause retinopathy or vision impairment.
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