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Former INEC chairman Prof. Maurice Iwu claims to have found the cure for coronavirus

Former INEC chairman Prof. Maurice Iwu claims to have found the cure for coronavirus

Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) Prof. Maurice Iwu announced yesterday March 2, that an institute
he owns has found the cure for the dreaded coronavirus.

The former INEC Chairman who is the CEO of Bioresources Institute of
Nigeria (BION), made the disclosure during a meeting between his
researchers and the Ministers of Science and Technology and Health in
Abuja.

He disclosed that the institute identified and patented the possible
COVID 19 treatment far back in 2015 at the University of Nigeria Nsukka,
where he was a professor of Pharmacognosy and continued in America when
he was visiting scholar at the Division of experimental Therapeutics of
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington DC, USA, between
1994 and 2003. Iwu said the research was reactivated during the Ebola
epidemic.

 
The former INEC Chairman also recounted how his company collaborated
with leading laboratories from different parts of the world to come up
with anti-Ebola virus activity of three structurally characterised
compounds from Nigerian plants which were subsequently granted patent
protection by the federal government of Nigeria in 2018.

 
He said;

 “I am here to formally brief you about our drug discovery project,
which has led to the identification of a potential treatment agent for
coronavirus infections.

‘’You will recall that on July 23, 2018, you presented to scientists
of the Bioresources Institute of Nigeria (BION) patent certificates
granted by the Trade mark, Patent and Design Registry facilitated by the
National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP.

“The three patents granted     to us NG/p?2015.84; NG/P/2015/85 and
NG/P/2015/97 were based on discoveries from the natural products drugs
screening programme at Bioresources Institute of Nigeria, BION, focused
in Neglected Tropical Diseases, emergent Infections and Orphan
diseases.’’

Iwu who sought for the federal government’s assistance to translate
the compound into drug for treatment of virus, further disclosed that
the lead drug discovery project includes the chemical isolation and
characterization of naturally occurring compounds and subjecting them to
a battery of bioassays for the identification of potentially useful
drug-lead molecules.

Iwu added;

‘’Our approach is the use of a network of eminent scientists and
leading laboratories to target particular diseases, especially fever
virus, Chikungunya, Coronarus and Tacaribe virus; and chronic metabolic
diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases.”

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mohammed
Abdullahi who spoke to newsmen at the end of the meeting said the
discovery has been sent to the Special Committee on the Nigerian Academy
of Sciences.

Abdullahi said;

 “As part of the ongoing conversation on Coronavirus (COVID-19), the
FMSTNG hosted Prof Maurice Iwu, who intimated us of his drug discovery
project with a potential as a treatment agent for COVID-19.

“FMSTNG referred the discovery to its special committee set up to asses such claims.

“President of Nigerian Academy of Sciences will chair the special committee to verify these claims.”

Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who expressed happiness with the discovery said;

“We cannot continue to copy other countries but show that we have the
best brains in Nigeria.   It is gladdening to know that the NIHS had
already entered an MoU with the BION. The ministry had already set up a
Committee to look into any drug related issues’’

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