The Federal University Teaching Hospital (FUTH), Lafia, is set to lead the creation of Nigeria’s first vaccine research and development hub targeting Lassa fever and other infectious diseases.
Chief medical director (CMD) of FUTH, Dr. Ikrama Hassan announced the initiative on Saturday in Abuja at the inaugural vaccine research retreat.
Hassan said the project stemmed from his personal experience growing up in Lafia, Nasarawa State, where a recurring “mysterious illness” ravaged communities annually and was often misdiagnosed as typhoid fever.
“It wasn’t until my time at the University of Ibadan, studying Lassa fever, that I realised what had devastated my community for years wasn’t typhoid, it was Lassa fever,” he said. “Even as a trained physician, I didn’t know.”
In 2019, during his tenure as director of health planning, research, and statistics in Nasarawa State, he initiated the establishment of a vaccine research centre. Though the facility was completed, it remained inactive for over six years. Now, as CMD of the host institution, reviving the centre has become his top priority.
“The impact will be monumental; not just for Nasarawa State, but for Nigeria and Africa as a whole,” he said.
To drive the project forward, he has enlisted the support of key stakeholders, including a vaccine development expert and CEO of Innovative Biotech, Dr. Simon Agwale who also hails from Nasarawa. Agwale has begun forging partnerships with the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) and other international health agencies to back the initiative.
“If this group cannot make this centre a reality, I don’t think there’s another that can,” Hassan said.
He stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed the dangers of over-reliance on imported vaccines, underscoring the urgency for local solutions to epidemic-prone diseases like Lassa fever.
“Lassa fever is endemic in several Nigerian states, including Nasarawa. It causes yearly outbreaks and leaves many survivors with long-term complications, such as hearing loss. Yet there is still no widely available Lassa fever vaccine in the country,” he said.
At the retreat, Agwale emphasised the life-saving power of vaccines and warned against vaccine hesitancy by citing the resurgence of measles in the United States.
“Vaccines led to the eradication of smallpox. Today, we’re talking about the possible eradication of polio—again, because of vaccines,” he said.
He noted that Nigeria’s vaccine development effort is hampered by weak early-stage research capacity and a lack of basic infrastructure.
“There’s no institution in Nigeria we can count on to generate the early-stage data required for vaccine development,” he said.
Agwale called for urgent investments in animal testing facilities, genomic laboratories and other foundational research infrastructure.
“Science is not guesswork. Without the right infrastructure for animal testing, it becomes just that – guesswork,” he stated.
He explained that Nigerian biotech companies are often forced to take on roles meant for universities due to research capacity gaps in academic institutions.
“As a biotech company, we’re doing everything,” he said.
Agwale advocated for stronger collaboration among academia, government, and the private sector, stressing that locally developed vaccines could also help universities generate income through intellectual property (IP).
“If an academic institution develops a vaccine, the IP belongs to them. That’s how research becomes sustainable,” Agwale said.
He also drew attention to the stark global inequality in health research funding.
“The U.S. National Institutes of Health has a budget exceeding $40 billion—more than Nigeria’s entire national budget,” he said. “We are not ready.”
