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The Nigerian House of Representatives’ Committee on Health plans to initiate clinical trials of controversial anti-HIV/AIDS drugs and vaccines produced by indigenous scientists, news organisations reported the committee chairman as saying on Wednesday.
Dr Willy Ogbeide told journalists on Tuesday that 200 million naira (US $1.8 million) had been voted for the exercise, according to the reports.
Two doctors, Jeremiah Abalaka and Jacob Abdullahi, who claim to have produced vaccines and drugs respectively that are effective against HIV, have been asked to appear before the committee on 22 February along with officials of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development to agree on procedures for implementing the trials, he said.
‘The Guardian’ daily in Lagos quoted Ogbeide as saying the procedures to be adopted would follow the standard practice of using human “guinea pigs” for the clinical trials.
The claims by Abalaka and Abdullahi became controversial after they were denounced by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government, which last year banned the use of all locally produced therapies against HIV/AIDS. This prompted statements by senior military officials that several infected soldiers were cured by Abalaka and the subsequent convening of public hearings on the matter by the House of Representatives.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions