The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has described as “distasteful” the decision by the federal government to import a herbal concoction, COVID Organics (CVO), from Madagascar.
President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 to import the widely touted herbal solution developed by Madagascar to cure the novel virus.
But President of the PSN, Sam Ohuabunwa, in a statement on Tuesday said it received the news “with utter disbelief.”
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He said the government should not be importing what the country can produce locally.
According to him, spending “scarce foreign exchange” to import COVID Organics would amount to importing “Coal into Newcastle”.
He suggested that the country should try its “local formulations before we try COVID Organics or any other imported remedy.”
“Every well-meaning nation has been in a race to find cures, remedies and other medical supplies used for COVID-19, while we seem to wait for other nations to solve our problems,” the PSN said.