The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says the Covishield vaccine is the same as the Oxford AstraZeneca University (AZOU).
Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC’s Director General who made gave the explanation in a statement on Sunday noted that the clarification has become necessary, She said that Covishield is the result of cooperation and a technology transfer from AstraZeneca — the University of Oxford to Serum Institute of India PVT Ltd (SIIPL).
“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 the manufacturing agreement.
“SIIPL gave the vaccine the trade name COVISHIELD, it is the result of cooperation and a technology transfer from AstraZeneca — the University of Oxford to SIIPL.
“SIIPL is now the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by the number of doses produced and sold globally.
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“More than 1.5 billion doses, which include Polio vaccine, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps and Rubella.
“Both COVISHIELD manufactured by Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd and COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca manufactured by AstraZeneca is the same vaccine – ChAdOx1 nCoV- 19 Corona Virus Vaccines (Recombinant),” she said
Adeyeye added that the vaccines manufactured by SIIPL were accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and are being used in about 170 countries in their national immunisation programme.
On March 2, the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Nigeria courtesy of the UNled COVAX facility, which donated 3.9 million doses to Nigeria.
“Both COVISHIELD manufactured by Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd and COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca manufactured by AstraZeneca is the same vaccine – ChAdOx1 nCoV- 19 Corona Virus Vaccines (Recombinant).
COVISHIELDTM was granted Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the World Health Organisation on 15th February 2021 and it is one of the listed vaccines under the COVAX Facility”, the statement added.
