National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has warned Nigerians against the use of fake Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine that is already being circulated.
The agency said the warning was imperative to ensure people did not risk being vaccinated with harmful substance.
NAFDAC made this known in a statement signed by its Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, on Sunday, in Abuja.
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In her statement, Adeyeye explained that the original Oxford Astrazeneca University (AZOU) vaccine, had been contracted to India’s world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India (SIIPL), to produce in large quantity.
She stressed;
AZOU gave the license of its vaccine to Serum Institute of India PVT Ltd, (SIIPL), to manufacture this vaccine at a commercial scale. SIIPL is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world and the company got the license by signing the manufacturing agreement.
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The Director General stated;
SIIPL gave the vaccine the trade name COVISHIELD, it is the result of cooperation and a technology transfer from AstraZeneca – University of Oxford to SIIPL. SIIPL is now the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally.
More than 1.5 billion doses, which include Polio vaccine, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps and Rubella.
Adeyeye added that the vaccines manufactured by SIIPL were accredited by World Health Organisation (WHO), and were being used in about 170 countries across the globe in their national immunisation programme.
She added that both COVISHIELD manufactured by SIIPL and COVID-19 vaccine Astrazeneca, manufactured by Astrazeneca/Oxford University vaccine are the same vaccine.
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According to Adeyeye, ChAdOx1 nCoV- 19 corona virus vaccines (Recombinant), COVISHIELD, was granted Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by World Health Organisation on February 15, and that it was one of the listed vaccines under COVAX Facility.
