The National Agency for Food And Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has confirmed that AstraZeneca and Oxford University (AZOU) originally developed the ChAdOx1 recombinant adenoviral vector vaccine to be used for the prevention of COVID-19 disease.
This is contained in a statement issued on Sunday signed by the agency’s Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, on Sunday, in Abuja.
Adeyeye explained that AZOU gave the license of its vaccine to Serum Institute of India PVT Ltd (SIIPL) to manufacture this vaccine at a commercial scale.
“SIIPL is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world and the company got the license by signing a manufacturing agreement with AstraZeneca (AZ)/Oxford University to manufacture this vaccine.
“SIIPL gave the vaccine the trade name COVISHIELDTM. COVISHIELDTM is the result of cooperation and a technology transfer from the AstraZeneca University of Oxford to SIIPL,” she said.
Adeyeye further explained that Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. is now the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by a number of doses produced and sold globally (more than 1.5 billion doses) which includes Polio vaccine as well as Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccines.
She stressed that vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute are accredited by the World Health Organisation, Geneva and are being used in around 170 countries across the globe in their national immunisation programs, saving millions of lives throughout the world.
“Both COVISHIELD manufactured by Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd and COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca manufactured by AstraZeneca are the same vaccine – ChAdOx1 nCoV- 19 Corona Virus Vaccines (Recombinant).
“COVISHIELDTM was granted Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the World Health Organisation on February 15, 2021 and it is one of the listed vaccines under the COVAX Facility,” she said.
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