Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye on Tuesday stated that pieces of evidence from reliable researches and reports showed that Chloroquine can kill the COVID-19 virus at the early stage.

During an online interactive session with journalists, she said: “We realise that chloroquine can be used in the early stage of the COVID-19 infection as prophylactic treatment. Science does not lie.”

“On March 20, 2020 during a press briefing, I said I was going through a literature and I found (out) that chloroquine and remdesivir killed COVID-19 in vitro – that is in the laboratory. In early March, there was a publication where 100 patients were treated with chloroquine in 10 hospitals across Chinese cities. I made a statement that chloroquine is only for clinical trial treatment. There has to be a level of confidence that depends on the number of subjects and results.”

“We did not know that the disease has four stages that include pre-exposure, early stage, severe stage and post-infection. At what stage that chloroquine will be more effective, we did not know at that time.

“We are now understanding that it is not one drug that can be effective for COVID-19. It depends on the phase of the disease. We started working with Lagos State on clinical trial for chloroquine. We are getting to know  that it is working.

“My colleague in Ghana has a robust study on chloroquine use on COVID-19 patients that is going to be released soon. Also, several people that had COVID-19 in Senegal recovered after using the drug.”

Adeyeye further said: “The Director General of Senegal’s drug regulatory body that is also Director General of the regional regulatory body ordered chloroquine from a company in Ota, Ogun State, and distributed to 15 member-countries. I know Ghana is using it. If something is effective prophylactically, it means that the disease will not progress.”