Therapies and the pandemic

Health Minister Osagie Ehanire has often spoken about potential therapies for Covid-19, the raging pandemic in which Nigeria approached a grim mark of 4,000 cases as at the weekend.

He did so again last week when he made known that Nigeria has shown interest to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to be part of global solidarity trial of medicines being experimented to take down the highly contagious coronavirus, even as research is under way locally on potent medications against the virus. “Other drugs can be added to the trials based on emerging evidence. In all of this, we shall ensure the maintenance of ethical standards and safety of our people,” he said at a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 after government relaxed the hard lockdown earlier imposed to leash the pandemic.

Some 24 hours later, the minister said government had not ruled out using local herbs to fight the deadly virus; he insisted, however, that the efficacy of any touted cure must first be certified by the Nigerian Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRID). Speaking at a briefing of House of Representatives members by the task force, Ehanire stated: “Before now, it was said that Chloroquine can destroy the virus, but tests are still ongoing in that regard. We have to test the efficacy of local drugs to see if they can kill the virus, and also to find out if in the process of killing the virus they can affect the body. The institute will carry out required tests on local drugs to find out how they work.”

He had spoken on a similar note penultimate week when he said the use of herbs to treat Covid-19 was not being discouraged. Responding to a question on herbal treatment or prevention of the virus, he said so far the herbs don’t cause harm Nigerians could use them. The minister urged alternative medicine exponents to work with the Health ministry and NIPRID on developing possible cure for Covid-19, saying: “I receive almost every day letters from (exponents) offering traditional formulae that they have put together and praising the quality and the efficacy of their inventions. Well, so long as they do not harm, we do not object. But I urge the Department of Traditional / Complementary Medicine in the Ministry of Health to look into these claims and work with NIPRID. They are responsible for finding and analysing medicines or looking into products of plant origin to see what is medicinal there. NIPRID will be able to find out what works and if it works.”

In the absence of medication officially accredited by WHO for coronavirus, therapies being applied range from blind shots like the Chloroquine prescription made famous by United States President Donald Trump, to enlightened gambles such as local therapies that different countries have been touting – notable among them Madagascar’s Covid-Organics (CVO) – a herbal concoction said to be highly effective against coronavirus, and which has been adopted by some African nations like Tanzania, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau and the Republic of Congo. But the hard fact is: a proven cure for the viral disease is very much a mission not yet accomplished.

Here in Nigeria, there hasn’t been a shortage of touted potential cures. Recently, one of the country’s most influential traditional rulers, Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, said he had a proven cure for Covid-19. Claiming divine foresight of the pandemic, he touted a spiritually inspired medication, saying the herbal product he was recommending had been tested and used to cure chronic coronavirus patients. “To solve this ailment is through natural elements put together above all from nature. It has been tested!!! I have used it and also used it for some chronic corona patients with testimonials,” he posted on his verified Instagram handle.

The monarch challenged researchers in Nigeria and across the world to make the natural herbs, which he identified but without composite measurements, into clinical medicine and vaccine extracts.  “I am ready to work with them and provide access to the herbs,” he asserted.

It hasn’t been all about herbal remedies; scientists have claimed breakthroughs in researches that could soon yield vaccines. Among them, University of Ilorin (Unilorin) Professor of Medical Virology Mathew Kolawole last week said a research team under his leadership had developed three viable proposals on tackling the virus. “One is on the development of a vaccine, another has to do with molecular epidemiology surveillance for Covid-19, and the third has to do with developing a prototype for case detection,” Kolawole, who is Director of Unilorin’s Institute of Molecular Science and Biotechnology (IMSB), stated. He added, however, that lack of funding has been a major hurdle faced by his team of researchers: “I have used my personal funds, and members of my team have also contributed personal funds to develop the prototype, and this is the bane of research in Nigeria. Ideas are there, but when you don’t have the funds you can do nothing.”

‘If Nigeria hopes to make impact in the global quest for Covid-19 cure, there must be concertedness in processing touted therapies’

Meanwhile, there is a global dash to head up an acceptable antidote to the deadly Covid-19. Besides Madagascar’s CVO, other notable inventions include a potential vaccine on which Germany, working with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, already has begun human trials; another potential vaccine that University of Oxford researchers have begun testing out on human volunteers; yet another potential vaccine that the British American Tobacco (BAT), maker of Benson & Hedges and Lucky Strike cigarettes, claims to have developed from tobacco plants; and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved “remdesivir” – a drug said to shorten recovery time for hospitalised patients by 31 percent or about four days on average. While WHO insists there is no approved cure yet, it has welcomed innovations around the world including repurposing of drugs, traditional formulations and development of new therapies in the search of antidote to the virus.

If Nigeria hopes to make an impact on the global quest for Covid-19 cure, there must be concertedness in the processing of touted therapies. Health Minister Ehanire has stressed the requirement of NIPRID certification, and it is incumbent on exponents to process their alleged breakthroughs accordingly rather than make it mere publicity fairs. Still, there is need for government, through the Health ministry and relevant agencies, to proactively harvest sundry claims and channel them for processing rather than detachedly leave it to claimants to self-process. It isn’t even certain if the official procedures for processing therapy claims are widely known enough to be readily applied by claimants. In other words, NIPRID may have more to do in public enlightenment. But since many claimants already take the step of intimating the Health Minister about their alleged breakthroughs, as he stated, there is a handle to leverage upon in channeling the claims for official interrogation and possible certification.

There is also the issue of funding for researches. Any country that desires to make headway in the global quest for coronavirus cure must be ready to commit a portion of its national resource to research. With many in the Nigerian academic community presently on an industrial action, it is doubtful much of research is under way. It is much more doubtful that government is resourcing research endeavours where they are ongoing, as the experience of the Unilorin team suggests.

To be sure, it isn’t only government, but private sector deep pockets and corporates also that should fund research. For Nigeria to make strides in Covid-19 therapy quest, academics, on one hand, must bury their personal cause and hit their laboratories in the nation’s collective interest; and on the other hand, government and private sector donors must be deliberate about funding research.