The Executive Director of the International Research Center of Excellence (IRCE) at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), Prof. Alash’le Abimiku has revealed that the Institute has joined the search for a HIV vaccine in partnership with organizations from eight countries.
Prof. Abimiku stated this at a press briefing to mark IHVN’s 20th anniversary in Abuja.
“For 30 years, Nigeria has not been involved in vaccine research to ensure that the vaccine that finally comes out will be relevant to Nigeria. So IHVN for the first time has put Nigeria and the whole of West Africa on the map. This is a big breakthrough in ending a pandemic that has affected millions of people with a significant number of people on lifelong medications,” she said.
The IRCE Executive Director said that the Institute is currently sequencing the viruses that come from Nigeria and West Africa, Sub-type G, and CRF- O2 to ensure that those sequences are part of a vaccine construct. She noted that the research will go through different phases that may take five to ten years.
“We are at the initial stages of the project with funding from USAID for the first five years. We are designing the construct to make sure that it has sequences of our viruses, so that is the first step. Whatever we test must take into consideration the viruses existent in our country,” she added.
She explained that IRCE is involved in clinical trials to test new drugs and concepts.
“We have a clinical trials unit. This differentiates us from other NGOs. This is why we can test candidate HIV vaccines and evaluate new platforms for diagnostics. Even during COVID, we tested if we could give individuals antibodies from other individuals that have recovered – individuals that were able to fight it.”
Prof. Abimiku said that IRCE’s vision is to tackle local challenges.
“It is not unusual that a lot of what we’ve done has focused on HIV, TB, malaria but we’ve also gone into non-communicable diseases that have been ravaging our population”
Also at the press briefing, IHVN Chief Executive Officer, Dr Patrick Dakum commended the media for partnering with the Institute to provide quality health services, capacity building, and research.
“Our celebration is mainly a celebration of life for the contributions that we have made. It is not just about the number of people we have provided services to, behind every number is a human being whose quality of life has improved,” he said.
IHVN Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director, Dr. Charles Olalekan Mensah stressed that the Institute’s achievements have been a result of partnerships and funding support of more than 300 million USD through grants from Global Fund, USAID, United States National Institutes of Health amongst other agencies.
