NAFDAC Approves AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine, Suspended In South Africa
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has approved AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for use in Nigeria
NAFDAC in a press briefing said it got the dossier of the vaccine a week ago.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, or AZD1222, is a viral vector vaccine.
Scientists used an adenovirus, originally derived from chimpanzees, and modified it with the aim of training the immune system to mount a strong response against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).
The vaccine can be stored at 2-8℃ ( in a normal refrigerator) which distinguished it from some of the other COVID-19 vaccines such as Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine.
NAFDAC’s endorsement of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine came after a team of scientists at the University of Edinburgh said B1525 variant of the virus whose earliest sequences were dated to December and found in Nigeria could be vaccine-resistant.
The variant is said to contain the E484K mutation and first found in Nigeria in December 2020, which is present in the virus variants found in South Africa and Brazil. The E484K mutation is “thought to help the virus evade neutralising antibodies” The Guardian reported.
South Africa suspended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeenca vaccine earlier this month after it found out the vaccine could not prevent mild and moderate illness caused by a variant found in the country. The country announced on Tuesday that it would donate the jabs already procured to other African Union countries.
