US React As Nigerian-Born Medical Doctor Helps To Develop COVID-19 Vaccine

The United States has reacted ad Nigerian-born medical doctor, Onyema Ogbuagu has helped in the development of COVID-19 vaccine.

The US Embassy in Nigeria lauded him fie his role in the discovery of the vaccine in America.

Earlier in the month, US drug manufacturing firm, Pfizer announced that the vaccine has an efficacy rate of more than 90 percent, marking a major breakthrough in the fight against the pandemic.

“Nigerians contribute to the world in so many ways,” the US Mission in Nigeria tweeted on its handle on Monday. “Our hats off to Dr Onyema Ogbuagbu at Yale who helped develop a COVID-19 vaccine!”

Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, had also extolled the contributions of Ogbuagu, who is from Abia.

The Governor had described Ogbuagu, “a twin son of Prof Chibuzo Ogbuagu a former Vice-Chancellor of Abia State University, Uturu (ABSU) and a former Secretary to Abia State Government (SSG)” as “one of the leading lights in the newly found globally celebrated Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19”.

Ogbuagu is an Associate Professor of medicine at Yale University. He is one of those leading the research at Pfizer for a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.

In a series on Tweet on his official handle, Monday, the medical expert dispelled some misconceptions about the vaccine, explaining that misinformation about the pandemic may lead to loss of lives.

Ogbuagu’s profile on the website of Yale School of Medicine states that his clinical responsibilities include educating and training medical students, residents, and infectious diseases fellows in various capacities in inpatient and outpatient settings; and through structured course work and other teaching sessions.

For five years now, Ogbuagu has been the Director of the Yale AIDS Program HIV clinical trials program, and a principal investigator on numerous pharmacokinetic, phase 2 and 3 safety and efficacy trials of novel antiviral compounds (HIV).

Most recently, given the alarming rate of new infections among men who have sex with men (MSM), he has focused on HIV prevention trials including being a co-principal investigator on a Yale CIRA funded project, which has supported the formation of a cohort of men who have sex with men, who are at high risk for HIV and are engaged in HIV PrEP services in order to study the impact of substance use on retention in care and adherence to PrEP.

Pfizer, after the conclusion of its trials, recently announced that its Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective.

A few days after, Moderna also reported that its own version of the Covid-19 vaccine was 94% effective.

The announcement by Pfizer, followed by Moderna, remains a game changer in the quest for a Covid-19 vaccine.

Ogbuagbu, however, said he had been involved in the trials of the vaccines by Pfizer. An Associate Professor of Medicine and infectious disease specialist at Yale School of Medicine, Ogbuagbu, in an interview with ABC News, said he was super excited by the results, because having a very effective vaccine would help in achieving herd immunity.

A 2003 graduate of medicine from the University of Calabar, he noted that currently, there were insufficient doses of the vaccine for everyone at the moment, but contended that enough doses should be available by the first quarter of 2021.

He is of the belief that if a lot of people receive the vaccine and are protected against the virus, it would go a long way in containing its spread, which has been ravaging the world since the outbreak in Wuhan, China.

Pfizer has said it would launch a pilot in four states in the United States, but there have been concerns as the vaccine needs to be stored at -94 degrees Fahrenheit (-70 degree Celsius).

But Ogbuagbu has said preparations are being made already to surmount those challenges.

Ogbuagbu is in the clinician-educator track and Director of the HIV Clinical Trials programme of the Yale AIDS Programme, Section of Infectious Diseases of the Yale School of Medicine.

His profile obtained from the website of Yale School of Medicine revealed that in response to the Covid pandemic, he was the Yale principal investigator on multiple investigational therapeutic and preventative clinical trials for Covid-19, including remdesivir (now FDA approved), leronlimab and remdesivir and tocilizumab combination therapy as well as the Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine trial.

He is one of the twin sons of Prof. Chibuzo Ogbuagbu former VC of ABSU and Abia SSG.

The Ogbuagbus were reported to have returned to Nigeria, where Onyeama studied medicine and then returned to Yale.

Ogbuagbu’s responsibilities at Yale include educating and training medical students, residents and infectious diseases fellows in various capacities in inpatient and outpatient settings; and through structured course work and other teaching sessions.

As a faculty of the HIV training track of the Yale-Internal Medicine primary care programme and for over six years as a faculty of the Human Resources for Health program in Rwanda, he has extensive experience with curriculum development, structuring of residency training programmes, and mentoring residents and faculty.

In Rwanda, specifically, he mentored medical residents and junior faculty in quality improvement and clinical research projects that were locally relevant and addressing important infectious diseases-related problems (particularly HIV/AIDS and antimicrobial resistance).

In addition, Ogbuagbu has facilitated meaningful educational and research collaborations between faculty and trainees across institutions.

As the programme director of World Bank and HRSA-funded efforts supporting the Liberia College of Physicians and Surgeons (LCPS)-run Internal medicine residency training programme, he oversaw the selection and deployment of faculty to Liberia, and was responsible for educational programmes and activities aimed at strengthening the residency training programme.

Overall, his expertise and collective experiences to date have seen him design and run successful projects around capacity building in low-resource settings, including developing and implementing innovative and robust medical training and research programmes for faculty, fellows, residents and students.

For five years running, he has been the director of the Yale AIDS Programme, HIV clinical trials programme, and a principal investigator on numerous pharmacokinetic, phase 2 and 3 safety and efficacy trials of novel antiviral compounds (HIV).

Ogbuagbu is also a lead investigator on the international DISCOVER trial evaluating TAF/FTC vs TDF/FTC for HIV prevention among MSM and transgender women