National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has approved use of Moderna and AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines for emergency use.
The AstraZeneca approved is from the Republic of Korea (SK Bioscience Co Limited) as a result of the stall in the procurement of AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as Covishield, manufactured under licence by Serum Institute of India, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Moderna is produced by Rovi Pharma Madrid, Spain while Sputnik V from Russia is by Gamaleya National Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
NAFDAC had previously approved AstraZeneca (India), Pfizer bioNTech as well as Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines in February and May 2021.
The Director-General of the NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, made these known during a briefing at its headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.
She explained that while Moderna and AstraZeneca AZD1222 vaccines have received WHO emergency use listing (EUL) and were given expedited approvals, Sputnik V is yet to receive the EUL approval and the was subjected to full six-month review.
“NAFDAC is announcing the approval of Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines and conditional approval of Sputnik V vaccine. The NAFDAC Vaccine Committee has been carefully assessing several vaccines despite the fact the vaccines have been approved by stringent regulatory countries or have received WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL)”.
“A COVID-19 vaccine that has gone through the prior approval from either of these two sources had gone through quality, safety and efficacy evaluation which is a prerequisite for acceptance by COVAX Facility. Most regulatory agencies across the world use this mechanism to expedite their own regulatory approval to import and administer COVID-19 vaccines’‘Prof Mojisola added.