A Federal High Court in Makurdi on Friday
lifted a government ban on the use of HIV
vaccines produced by a Nigerian doctor,
Jeremiah Abalaka.
The court, presided over by Justice Binta
Nyako, also restrained the Federal
Government and the National Agency for Food
and Drug Administration and Control,
NAFDAC, from further interfering with the
use of the vaccines.
Mr. Abalaka, an Abuja-based medical
practitioner, had challenged NAFDAC for
banning him from using the vaccines he
discovered in 1999 for the treatment and
prevention of the deal Human Immuno
Deficiency Virus, HIV.
The therapy, which generated controversy for
years in Nigeria, was banned by the Obasanjo
administration.
Joined in the suit were the president of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Attorney
General of the Federation.
Testifying before the court, Mr. Abalaka, who
also called three witnesses, said he discovered
a recipe to turn the virus in the infected
blood of HIV infected person into both
preventive and curative vaccines.
He said he applied for the patent of the
discovery and was granted on July 22, 1999.
“I wrote to health institutions and authorities
in Nigeria to draw their attention to the
discovery to collaborate with me to test and
confirm the breakthrough,” the doctor said.
“This was in order to bring succour to
sufferers of HIV but the letters were ignored.’’
Mr. Abalaka said the National Institute for
Pharmaceutical Research and Development,
NIPRD, took him up on the discovery and
confirmed the potency of the drugs.
“This was done through a report on Feb 28,
2000, but the Federal Government
discontinued further collaboration with me
and the institute,” he told the court.
He disclosed that various agencies of federal
government, including its hospitals, had
purchased the vaccines from him and applied
them on their own patients who had HIV and
many were cured.
“When the FG discovered that the vaccines
were potent, it sent agents to me with the
sum of N10million for the breakthrough to be
announced in Atlanta Georgia, USA, but I
refused,” Mr. Abalaka said.
Mr. Abalaka said his vaccines were then
banned from being used for the treatment of
HIV epidemic in Nigeria by NAFDAC.
His counsel, Mr. Paul Omale, had urged the
court to determine whether the defendants
had justified their banning the vaccines and
“sentence about 3.5 million Nigerians to
death’’ while there was effective and safe
vaccines to cure them.
Mr. Omale further urged the court to
determine whether the defendants had shown
any harmful side effect of the vaccines.
Counsel to the defendants, Uche Ezekwesili,
however, abandoned their plea as he could
not call witnesses to justify the ban.
Delivering the landmark judgment, Justice
Nyako said since there was no cure yet for
HIV, it was only fair for the defendants to
have allowed the plaintiff to use the vaccines
on infected persons with their consent.
NAN.
No comments: