The Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos, Prof. John Obafunwa, has urged the private sector to partner with the institute to commercialise diagnostic kits for detecting infectious diseases such as Lassa fever, HIV, COVID-19, and hepatitis B and C.
Obafunwa said besides diagnosis, NIMR was actively involved in developing diagnostic tools locally which he affirmed would reduce the country’s dependence on importation.
The pathologist revealed that the institute had successfully developed COVID-19, Hepatitis B, C, HIV, and Monkeypox diagnostic kits.
The NIMR boss disclosed this during the inaugural edition of the monthly media briefing organised by the institute to show its activities such as clinical trials and their results to the public.
“The work that goes on in NIMR cannot be pushed aside. NIMR has developed some diagnostic kits. It successfully developed diagnostic kits for COVID-19, Hepatitis B, C, HIV, and Monkeypox.
“If we can have private individuals partner with NIMR to ensure commercial production, it will go a long way to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign companies and organisations. This ability will limit the need to want to buy these kits from abroad and help to save our meagre foreign exchange. This is one of the areas we need not just the government but the private sector investment and NIMR would have financial benefits from it”, he said.
Obafunwa said NIMR’s vision was to be an institution of excellence in basic applied and operational research for the promotion of national health and development in the country.
“Towards this end, the mission is to conduct research into diseases that are of public health importance within the country and develop structures and platforms for the dissemination of such research results,” he added.
The don also said NIMR was working on a Lassa fever vaccine which is currently at the preliminary stage in collaboration with the Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention.
He further disclosed the institute was working on non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart attack which he assured would help to reduce its burden in the country.
Obafunwa said, “We can do research to know if there are any special genetic predispositions to hypertension in our environment and identify genetic constitutions in any part of the country that favours the development of diabetes.
“A lot is said about chronic renal diseases and renal failure with dialysis, and kidney transplant in the country, we need to find out if there is anything in our water and food that we need to revisit to know and the genetic predispositions to chronic renal diseases.
“We have the facility to explore these things, NIMR is that expert at the background that people don’t see, we hope that a forum like this will help us to get across, to not just the average man on the street, but also legislators.”
Continuing, he pledged to resuscitate the institute’s outstations in some parts of the country to broaden its research activities as the nation’s leading research institute charged with the conduct of research on public health issues in Nigeria.
The DG said the outstations in Maiduguri, Borna State, Kainji in Niger State and Asaba, Delta State are currently dormant, apart from that of Delta where some collaborative work is being done with the State Ministry of Health.
“My plan this 2025 is to deploy some very senior researchers to these facilities and get them fully functional,” he said.
The former Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, however, identified poor funding and power supply as major challenges confronting the institute.
According to him, 95 per cent of research works carried out by the institute were funded by foreign donors, thereby limiting its scope of research.
Obafunwa noted, “ The running of NIMR so far has depended to a large extent, 95 per cent on foreign donors like the World Health Organisation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, West Africa Health Organisation, and others.
“It is said that he who pays the piper dictates the tune, what this means is that most of this research will be what the foreign donors are interested in.
“We need to recalibrate and focus a lot more on issues about our health conditions and this is why the government and indeed our legislators need to approve money to concentrate on local research.”
He called for increased domestic research funding to boost the institute’s operation and research activities in finding solutions to the country’s high disease burden.
On the power supply challenge, the professor said poor electricity supply coupled with outrageous bills would impact ongoing clinical trials at the institute and cause the decay of temperature-sensitive samples and reagents.
“The first bill in August was a staggering N49 million, followed by 48 million in September and N44 million in October. These exorbitant costs have severely impacted our research activities.
“We’ve had to resort to unconventional measures. We’ve been indirectly appealing to foreign donors for assistance in offsetting the bills. Internally, we’ve implemented strict energy-saving measures; including switching off fans and lights in labs, and implementing scheduled power cuts in residential areas”, Obafunwa said.
