The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has admonished Nigerians to ensure that the AstraZeneca vaccine being administered on them had the original label.
The agency disclosed that the warning was important to avert a situation where people would be vaccinated with fake Astrazeneca vaccine.
This was contained in a statement signed by NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, on Sunday, in Abuja.
Adeyeye explained that the original Oxford Astrazeneca University (AZOU) vaccine, had been contracted to India’s world largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India (SIIPL), to produce in large quantity.
“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.
“SIIPL gave the vaccine the trade name COVISHIELD, it is the result of cooperation and a technology transfer from AstraZeneca – the University of Oxford to SIIPL.
“SIIPL is now the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by the 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,” she said.
The NAFDAC DG added that the vaccines manufactured by SIIPL were accredited by World Health and were being used in about 170 countries across the globe in their national immunisation programme.
Adeyeye also stated that both COVISHIELD manufactured by SIIPL and COVID-19 vaccine Astrazeneca, manufactured by AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine are the same vaccine.
