COVID-19: Iwu’s herbal solution for clinical trials – NAFDAC

Thu, Aug 27, 2020
By editor
2 MIN READ

Featured, Health

By Anayo Ezugwu

THE National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has approved Prof. Maurice Iwu’s herbal solution for clinical trials. Mojisola Adeyeye, director-general, NAFDAC, said Iwu’s herbal solution is part of the 40 herbal drugs currently undergoing review to ensure their safety for use.

During an online news conference on Tuesday, August 25, Adeyeye warned that any claim of cure must be subjected to clinical trials following an approved clinical trial protocol. “Prof. Maurice Iwu’s application for approval of herbal medicine for the management of COVID-19 is also part of the 40 applications we are reviewing for safety.

“Until a clinical trial is done in a scientific manner, no herbal medicine manufacturer can claim cure or effectiveness to treat COVID-19 associated symptoms. I believe that Nigeria’s herbal medicines may be able to cure COVID-19. We use animals for safety test to ensure the formulation will not kill anybody,” she said.

Iwu had in February this year claimed that he had identified a possible treatment of the Coronavirus.  He said COVID-19 belongs to a class of viruses that are very common, some more serious than others. He noted that the class includes the flu virus, SARS, and Middle East respiratory syndrome.“We got a patent since 2015, shortly after the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria, for SARS Coronavirus, which is deadlier than COVID-19,” he told Ogbonnaya Onu, minister of science and technology.

In March 2019, NAFDAC inaugurated the Nigerian Herbal Medicine Product Committee and the goal of the committee was to bring herbalists together with researchers and university professors.

– Aug. 27, 2020 @ 16:55 GMT |

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