Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha, Director-General of NABDA, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday, March 11, 2022, in Abuja.
The Director-General said scientists at the Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics Department of the agency, led by its Director, Prof. Oyekanmi Nash, in collaboration with other researchers spearheaded the research.
“This is NABDA’s contribution towards finding a lasting solution to Lassa fever disease in Nigeria.
“Diseases are increasing on a yearly basis. So, NABDA has repositioned and repurposed three candidate drugs for the treatment of Lassa fever,’’ he said.
He expressed optimism that the drugs would address the challenges faced in treating patients diagnosed with Lassa fever.
The NABDA boss recalled that on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, eminent scientists, researchers, medical practitioners and technology experts held a meeting in Abuja.
He said the aim of the meeting was to discuss the method and processes of putting the drugs on clinical trial towards meeting plans to completely eradicate Lassa fever in Nigeria.
Mustapha identified funding as a major setback to research but expressed optimism that the 0.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to research and innovation by President Muhammadu Buhari could assist.
He said the allocation was encouraging, and that scientists should be happy about it.
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