Director General, Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Prof Babatunde Salako, has certified that the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) Virucidine Liquid has the potential for the treatment of COVID-19.
The herbal Virucidine Liquid for COVID-19 management was presented by (ABUAD) in collaboration with NIMR.
During the evaluation presentation, experts unveiled that lots of herbal preparations are commonly used in homes in Nigeria and that the country needed to begin to develop in-house therapy to conquer diseases.
Salako who lauded the ABUAD initiative said various therapeutic and non-therapeutic measures have been deployed to curtail the spread and impact of COVID-19, and that ABUAD Virucidine Liquid could be Nigeria’s contribution to ongoing global efforts to stem the scourge.
“I want to make people aware of the success that we have made, especially as the drug that we are looking at is homegrown. So it is like the Nigerian homegrown solution for a disease that has ravaged the world. Even though we are at a preliminary stage, our findings show that this is very promising and what we need to do is to move on to the next stage, which is to conduct the same study in larger numbers of people; it is after that that the regulatory agency will be confident to register it as a treatment for COVID-19.
“For now we see it as a promising drug. What we can say today is that we have herbal therapy that is looking promising and requires further tests. The extract was sent to us for toxicity evaluation for its safety, efficacy and tolerability. The results from the studies lead us to recommend a full clinical trial of ABUAD Virucidine Liquid and its possible addition as a herbal management to COVID-19 treatment in Nigeria pending the results of the full clinical trials.”
On his part, Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, ABUAD, Idowu Omotuyi, said the country must not always wait for foreign solutions for its health challenges.
“While the world is looking for a drug that could help with COVID-19, ABUAD, which is one of the major universities in Nigeria, has developed something for COVID-19. And so it was presented to a third party, which is NIMR to test, validate and share the findings with us. Everything here today is a manifestation of the efficacy of what we have developed in ABUAD. Nigerians should note that COVID-19 is not going anywhere, so ABUAD Virucidine is one of the therapeutic options for COVID-19. The way Virucidine works is to block SARS-Cov-2 from assessing the tube which is your body.”
While calling on the Federal Government to partner with ABUAD in the development of indigenous solutions to local problems, he said: “Virucidine is just a tip of what can come out of ABUAD; this is telling the world of the possibilities and the capacities available at ABUAD.”
In a presentation of the Proof-of-Concept clinical trial of the ABUAD herbal liquid, Deputy Director of Research, NIMR, Dr Agatha David, said out of 72 participants screened for the trials, 44 enrolled, and 43 (97.7 percent) of the enrolled participants completed the study.
“The main symptoms at enrolment were cough (65.0 percent), fever (55.8 percent), and sore throat (46.5 percent). A higher proportion of participants in the Virucidine arm were SARS-CoV-2 negative by day 3 (61.5 percent and by Day 7 92.3 percent were negative.)
“All participants were SARS-CoV-2 negative by Day 14. A significantly higher proportion of participants on Virucidine were also symptom-free by Day 7 compared to the control group (88.5 percent versus 52.9 percent). The findings also revealed that the ABUAD Virucidine Liquid was well tolerated and there were no serious adverse events, clinical deterioration or death through the 28 days of follow-up,” David said.
