Court lifts ban Abalaka HIV Vaccine.

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)