Coronavirus: Results of herbal medicine trial to be ready in 2 months- FDA

Head of Clinical Trials at the Food and Drugs Authority, Yvonne Adu Boahen, says the results of the clinical trial of the first herbal medicine will be ready roughly by two months’ time.

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the National Medicine Regulatory Agency (NMRA) in Ghana, have approved herbal medicine, Cryptolepis sanguino/enta, locally known as Nibima for clinical trials in January 2021.

In the search for a treatment for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from the School of Public Health at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST), submitted a clinical trial application in September 2020 to assess the safety and efficacy of Cryptolepis sanguinolenta as a potential treatment for Covid-19.

This follows results from laboratory studies conducted by the KNUST research team which points in the direction of possible clinical benefits.

In an interview on Atinka Mid-day News, Madam Yvonne Adu Boahen again explained that, after the trial, it will go back to the scientists at the School of Public Health at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST) for further consultations.

Madam Yvonne Adu Boahen further explained that clinical trial simply means the medicine must be scientifically sound.

‘You don’t just wake up to say this medicine can cure this disease, you must get concrete evidence, try the medicine, tested in laboratories, tested in both humans and animals a number of times consistently and see if it is yielding results. In other words, it must be scientifically sound,’’ she added.