Early this week, the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Dr. Monica Musenero addressed journalists at the Uganda Media Centre on issues concerning Covid-19 and the development of a local vaccine.
Musenero disclosed that three vaccines are under development; NAV COV-19 Vaccine, UG-REC 19, and UG-INA-19.
While sharing the status of the NAV-COV-19 vaccine, Sheila Balinda, a molecular virologist noted that a key component has been generated locally from chimpazees at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre as well as the forest in Hoima.
“I’m happy to report that we have two versions of this compound to generate from our local chimpanzees. It’s broad-based and it will work for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. It will be owned by Uganda following the patent process,” Balinda said.
She added, “We have also generated three candidate vaccine molecules for the local Ugandan variant of concern A23.1, Delta, and Omicron. This next step will be to massively produce this, make bulk stocks, and then proceed to the animal experiments.”
Dr. Musenero previously revealed that the vaccine, which has already been tested in common mice, has proven safe and it is capable of triggering an immune response.
She said the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Makerere University scientists is only waiting for the last testing on genetically-engineered mice before trials on humans can start.
