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)
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