Even as Gilead Sciences, a US-based biopharmaceutical company, yesterday announced “positive data” in the clinical trial of Remdesivir, an experimental antiviral drug, for the treatment of COVID-19, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, expressed optimism that Nigeria would soon win the war against Coronavirus, saying the traditional cure for the virus had reached an advanced stage and would be made available to the public very soon.
Remdesivir was originally developed by the company as a potential treatment for Ebola, but it failed.
According to the company, the drug was found to be effective on COVID-19 patients during the trial which began in February. Gilead Sciences said it administered the drug on 397 severely ill COVID-19 patients and more than half of them were discharged within two weeks.
At the same time the world was greeting the news of Remdesivir, the monarch said though scientific solutions were being sought globally to end the pandemic, traditional medicine and solutions must also be considered and embraced as a way out of COVID-19.
The Ooni, therefore, urged the Federal Government to emulate Madagascar in its quest to use local herbs in combating Coronavirus, declaring that local herbs have the potency to heal victims of the virus.
He disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, shortly after he donated two motorized modular fumigators to the state government.
Oba Ogunwusi, who stated the donation of the mechanical fumigators was his own contribution to the state government’s efforts at combating the pandemic, said that he had gone far in working with the traditional medicine practitioners in the country to ensure a solution for Coronavirus.
In his remarks, Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun commended the monarch for the gesture and assured him that the fumigators would be put to good use. Abiodun said the state was open to ideas and activities capable of finding a solution to the virus.
In a related development, another US-based biopharmaceutical company, Pfizer, has said its COVID-19 vaccine could be ready for emergency use by September. Pfizer was quoted as saying that it will begin testing the experimental vaccine in the US next week. The announcement came a week after Germany approved the human trial of a possible COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine, named BNT162, was developed by Biontech, a Mainz-based company. The company had said the vaccine would be tested in the US after the human trials in Germany.
The United Kingdom has also announced that there would be clinical trials of a potential vaccine.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said there are about 20 different potential COVID-19 vaccines currently in development
