The media has been awash with the announcement that President Muhammadu Buhari as approved the use of the COVID-19 syrup developed in Madagascar to treat patients in Nigeria. The Nigerian President was said to have approved the airlifting of the country’s allocation of the Madagascar anti-coronavirus drink and the Chairman of the Presidential COVID-19 Committee, Mr. Boss Mustapha during one of their daily press briefings that the President gave “clear instructions that it must be subjected to the standard validation process for pharmaceuticals; there will be no exceptions for this.”
The Madagascar herbal mixture is a drink derived from Artemisia, a plant with proven efficacy in malaria treatment and other indigenous herbs and was developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.
Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina had last month launched the remedy at Antananarivo, the country’s capital, saying the medicine had already cured two people of coronavirus disease. His country has since been giving away bottles of the product to other African countries.
Expectedly, the World Health Organization (WHO) has come out to say the syrup’s efficacy is unproven and has warned against “adopting a product that has not been taken through tests to see its efficacy”, stating further that even the Artemisia plant on its own cannot treat malaria, except it is mixed with other compounds.
What Nigeria and the other countries are getting from Madagascar is not just the formula but the full preparation, and that is what is on its way to Nigeria via Equatorial Guinea. Madagascar is 5274 kilometres from Nigeria, and as earlier stated, the herbal preparation has cured two patients of COVID-19.
As is usual with all drugs, and as Mr. Boss Mustapha has stated, it is expected that the magic drug will pass through screening by NAFDAC – the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control – and other agencies, to certify it safe and good to go. Scene One.
Last week, the Pax Herbal Laboratory in Ewu, Edo State, Nigeria announced that it had also developed a preparation that could cure coronavirus disease. It calls the preparation Pax CVD Plus.
Pax Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories was established in 1996 by Monks of the Monastery in Ewu as a centre for the promotion, development and proper utilization of African medicine. Ewu is a serene town situated in Esan Central Local Government Area in Edo State of Nigeria and the distance between Ewu and Benin City, the Edo State capital is 104 kilometres.
Pax Herbal, as they are popularly known, has shops in different parts of Nigeria, and especially in Lagos where many of us have had the opportunity to purchase their products in the past which obviously have NAFDAC approval so the two bodies are not strangers to each other.
However, Pax Herbal’s announcement drew the ire of NAFDAC who seem to want to distance itself from the Monks’ claim. NAFDAC issued a disclaimer that it had neither registered nor approved Pax CVD Plus or any drug whatsoever, for the treatment of COVID-19.
NAFDAC’s Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said contrary to an advertorial by Pax Herbal claiming to have developed a herbal drug called Pax CVD Plus for the treatment of COVID-19 and was working with NAFDAC to speed up approval for its use, Pax CVD Plus has not been registered or listed by NAFDAC for treatment of COVID-19; neither has her agency registered nor listed any other remedy for the same purpose.
According to her: “The clinical trial has not taken place. It is, therefore, unfortunate that Pax Herbal has made claims that are not backed up by facts”.
As was expected, the management of Pax Herbal took issue with NAFDAC’s comment over its herbal formulation, the Pax CVD Plus, as a likely COVID-19 cure.
Director of Pax Herbal, Rev Fr. Anselm Adodo, denied telling the regulatory agency that his firm had a drug or cure for COVID-19. “What we said was that we have a herbal formulation that has the potential to treat COVID-19, just like the type Prof. Maurice Iwu came up with. We did not say it was a ‘drug,’ but a formulation we had worked on. As a regulator, it is only fair we bring it to NAFDAC’s attention for evaluation and subsequent registration if it meets the requirements,” he said.
A lot of hot air has been thrown up and indeed, claims by other individuals and organisations on developing cures for COVID-19 have been controversial and many people, including government agencies and WHO are inclined to take them with a pinch of salt. But public reactions to these claims have always been ‘why not give these claims a trial or chance in view of the worldwide inability to find a cure for coronavirus disease?’ Such reactions may have put pressure on NAFDAC on the Pax Herbal claim and the agency seems to be resisting being put on the spot.
We are told that Pax Herbal has therefore been directed not to continue with the herbal formulation until a proper clinical trial has been concluded.
This is preposterous!
Accredited and qualified Nigerian organisations, companies and individuals are working to find solutions to, not just a Nigerian problem, but an international pandemic without borders that has so far defied solutions and they are pushed aside with a wave of the hand? Nigerians in the diaspora are making waves in the fields of medicine, pharmaceuticals, engineering, internet technology, mathematics and other areas and they have received accolades from foreign governments and international organisations. This is possible because they have been given the opportunities like other nationals, to prove themselves and they have excelled. Why can’t those working at home be given the same chance? No wonder our professionals are leaving the country in droves.
Look, I am for ANY move and drug that can cure coronavirus disease no matter where it comes from. But let’s reason – why did NAFDAC quickly condemn the Monks’ submission and those of others like Maurice Iwu and the Professor in Kaduna, among others? The Senegalese government has received worldwide accolade for what they have also done in the COVID-19 area. The governments of other countries like the US, UK, Canada and Germany are pushing their scientists and agencies to the limit in this battle.
We have no time to play politics with cure for COVID-19. While waiting for Madagascar miracle drug to fly down from 5,274 kilometres away, why not give our own a chance? The government of Madagascar gave full support and are even the ones promoting their syrup to the world. After all, NAFDAC will still need to certify the Madagascar Wonder. Give our people a chance too.
Or is the work and trial process too much for us to cope with?
IMAGE CREDIT: Encyclopedia Britannica, nafdac.gov.ng
Epa Ogie Eboigbe, veteran journalist, broadcaster and public affairs specialist writes on, and analyses current and historical issues with a ‘wise pen’.
It’s the intellectual inferiority complex that makes us believe that anything that is imported is better and authentic. The same complex that makes the phrase “Aba made” and unfortunate negative in Nigeria today. Look at the “Red Devils” of Biafran Engineers; if only we made some progress on those, by now Nigeria will be exporting Armoured Personnel carriers. This was way before America made Humvees! Those things could stand side by side with today’s Humvees. And that was FIFTY? years ago.
No serious effort to encourage our alternative medicine practitioners even when the developed world are going “organic”. My logic is simple; if our Natural medicine is that bad, how come our ancestors lived healthier lived and were around long enough to give birth to us?
It is quite unfortunate. We have been waiting for the trial and approval of this Pax Herbal Formulation which some of us believe could be the cure the world is anxiously waiting for judging from the efficacy of other Pax Products.
Nigeria kills the aspirations of her citizens (living within) to excel. It’s quite unfortunate. Or could it be that some people feel they won’t be able to make the billions they are already dreaming about? Bringing in imports in the name of coronavirus cure could translate into a money making venture.
For God’s sake let’s look at the number of lives lost or affected by this pandemic and the horrifying negative impact on our economy and on life itself and do the right thing. Nobody is advocating that every herbal mixture should get a rubber stamp of Nafdac or WHO. What we are saying is let us try them out. And if trials are already being done, let our government come out with the findings so far – is there any possibility of toxicity in any particular herb? Can this be improved upon? That’s what trial is all about.
Please Nigeria, appreciate the efforts of your people and do not let us go the way of Christ’s admonition: “a prophet is never recognized in his own country”.
Clearly, the Federal Government wants a quick, effective solution to the Covid-19 case. We can understand this position. Now, the Madagascar and the Nigerian Press have made very bold claims on the efficiency of the Madagascar’s wonder-drug; but our indigenous products have not been similarly advertised and tested. Rather, we see equivocations in the claims of our own people, when the situation at hand requires us to drive on a very fast lane. I think it is now a matter of anything that brings quicker cure.
Well spoken! We never trust each other that was why in the first place we brought Chinese doctors into our country even when we have good and qualified doctors here but even that, has covid 19 improved in Nigeria!? The good thing about all is that all of us are here that no one travels overseas for treatment of covid. May God help us individually and as a country.