Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Professor of Pharmacognosy, Prof. Maurice Iwu said he has the cure for the deadly Coronavirus ravaging several countries of the world.
Iwu who briefed the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu on Monday, said the cure for the novel coronavirus or COVID 19 had been discovered since 2015.
According to a release by Abdulganiyu Aminu, Head of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Iwu said his research group had identified and patented a possible treatment for coronavirus as far back as 2015 because of the importance of remaining ahead of emergent infections through research.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Adeleke Mamora and the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Barrister Mohammed Abdullahi were also at the briefing, according to the statement.
Prof. Iwu, disclosed that his institute, the Bio-Resources Institute of Nigeria (BION) had concluded arrangements with the Anti-viral programme of the US National Institute of Health to subject compounds from Nigerian plants against the Wuhan coronavirus.
According to Iwu, the drug discovery project started at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and continued in America when he was a visiting scholar at the Division of Experimental Therapeutics of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington DC.
Prof. Iwu further said his research had in 2014 also discovered an experimental lead compound that was identified 15 years earlier in 1999.
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“It is very important that we must remain ahead of these emergent infections through research. The other aspect of our work targets the so-called orphan diseases that are rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people, or disease that has not been adopted by the pharmaceutical industry because it provides little financial incentives for the private sector to make and market new medications to treat or prevent them, and/or diseases that affect mainly the poor.
“The drug discovery project was started at the University of Nigeria Nsukka where I was a Professor of Pharmacognosy and continued in America when I was a visiting Scholar at the Division of Experimental Therapeutics of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington DC USA (1994 -2003).
“Coronavirus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -Coronavirus) our approach is the use of a network of eminent scientists and leading laboratories to target particular diseases, especially neglected tropical, emergent diseases and orphan diseases such as Ebola virus and Dengue Fever, among others,” he was quoted as saying.
In his response, Dr. Onu commended Prof. Iwu for his discovery and said that it was a welcome development, adding that no single Nigerian life should be lost to the Covid 19.
He also praised the efforts of the Federal Ministry of Health since the outbreak of the first case of the Covid 19 in Nigeria, adding that Nigerians were now more assured and encouraged with the fast recovery of the index patient.
Dr. Onu further told Prof. Iwu that the ministry had set up a committee under the aegis of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences to look into cases of vaccine or cure for the dreaded Covid 19 and Lassa fever.
He, therefore, advised Prof. Iwu to make available his research findings to the committee for verification.
