Vice – President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday said locally made vaccines to combat COVID-19 would soon be available.
According to him, the Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, is already working on the local production of the vaccine.
A statement by Osinbajo’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said the Vice-President spoke while representing the President, Muhammadu Buhari virtually at a forum organised by the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.
In the statement titled, ‘How COVID-19 pandemic opened up immense talents of Nigerian scientists -By Buhari’, Osinbajo noted that the African Centre of Excellence for the Genomics of Infectious Disease located at Redeemer’s University, Ede, has “developed an efficacious rapid test for COVID and has been working on a vaccine in collaboration with DIOSynVax (Digital Immune Optimised Synthetic Vaccines), Cambridge UK, using the DIOSynVax genomic-based technology.
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“There are also efforts going on therapeutics of various kinds. The development of vaccines, tests and therapeutics these days is aided by automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence; so, this is a strong point of synergy between science and engineering.”
The Vice President also lauded Nigerian scientist, saying the pandemic had brought out the best in them.
“I think the pandemic has truly opened up the immense talents and creativity of Nigerian scientists and engineers and if the current momentum is supported, the next few years could be incredibly exciting,” he said.