A Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi, Benue State on Friday, November 14, lifted the ban placed by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, on the use of Dr. Jeremiah Abalaka’s patented vaccines for the treatment of HIV.
The Court, which was presided over by Justice Binta Nyako, also stopped the Federal Government and NAFDAC from further interfering with how the vaccine is used.
Abalaka, a medical practitioner, had dragged NAFDAC, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Attorney General of the Federation to court for banning him from the treatment and prevention of HIV.
Testifying before the court, Abalaka said he discovered a recipe to turn the virus in the infected blood of HIV infected persons into both preventive and curative vaccines.
He further added that 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. 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,” Abalaka said.
He said his vaccines were then banned from being used for the treatment of HIV in Nigeria by NAFDAC.
Justice Nyako, while delivering her judgement, said since there was no known 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.
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