Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu who heads a bioscience institute says he has identified a cure for the novel Coronavirus.
According to Iwu, who is a Professor of Pharmacognosy, the COVID-19 virus is among the neglected tropical emergent diseases his research group has been studying for years.
Professor Iwu made the disclosure while briefing the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who was in the company of the Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora and the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Barrister Mohammed Abdullahi in Abuja on Monday.
According to Profesor Iwu, he has been approached by the US Government to take the discovered compound and test it against the COVID-19 virus.
“We have selected to focus on neglected tropical emergent diseases such as Leishmaniasis, Ebola virus, Dengue fever virus, Chikungunya virus, coronavirus, and Tacaribe virus.
“When the Ebola virus broke out in 2014, many Nigerians were surprised that we had an experimental lead compound that we identified in 1999.
“Now with the emergence of a novel coronavirus in 2019 as COVID-19, we have identified and patented a possible treatment back in 2015, it is very important that we must remain ahead of these emergent infections through research.
“On Thursday last week, the US Government contacted me and we signed a non-clinical evaluation agreement for us to take this product forward and we are trying to see how we can test this compound immediately against this new virus.
“They are trying set up so we can see if this particular one is inferior to SARS so that the programme will be able to go on,” he maintained.
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