The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has approved Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for use in Nigeria.
Before now, Nigeria procured Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which is being administered across the country currently to check the spread of coronavirus.
Director-General, NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye disclosed this on Friday at a news conference in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
Adeyeye said the vaccines were reviewed carefully by the NAFDAC staff COVID-19 vaccine committee to make sure that the science behind the development was well understood and in accord with world regulatory activities.
She said NAFDAC used different mechanisms to approve the vaccine.
According to her, the body used reliance, “meaning that a more mature regulatory agency across the globe, we can use that as a basis for our review.”
She said NAFDAC would get the assessment report, know the peculiarity there, then the COVID-19 committee would get to do their job.
NAFDAC had earlier in the year approved the use of AstraZeneca vaccines in Nigeria, which was distributed to states.
The first dose of AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered in Nigeria while administration of the second dose would kick-off in May 2020.
