Lack of funds is stalling efforts being made by the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Ede, Osun State, to develop a locally made COVID-19 vaccine.
The centre’s Director, Christian Hapi, confirmed this to journalists in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Hapi, who said the process had started, added that the centre could not proceed to the stage of clinical trials because of a lack of funds.
“There are activities for development (of local COVID-19 vaccine). We are at the stage for clinical trials.
“We have not done the clinical trials because we are looking for funds to proceed,” he said.
When asked how much is the will the centre require to proceed to the clinical trial stage, Hapi said, “The amount required for the clinical trial is $189m.”
When further asked if the centre had approached the Federal Government and what the response was, he said, “Yes, we approached the Federal Government and we are still waiting for a response.”
