NIMR Has Potential To Develop Test Kits For Diseases – DG

The Director-General of the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Prof John Oladapo Obafunwa, has said that the institute has the personnel, the potential and the capacity to develop and produce test kits for analysis of any disease, if well-funded. This was as he said that if the NIMR is funded adequately, the nation would save a lot of foreign exchange as it will no longer need to import test kits, or send tests for analysis outside the country, reports of which usually take a long time to be received by the institute. Obafunwa, who stated further that NIMR, is doing a lot in medical research, recalling that the institute developed test kits for Hepatitis B, however, added that NIMR has also developed test kits for mpox that could conduct 500 tests at once.

“The test kit has been validated by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). NIMR has test kits to conduct at least 500 tests at a go,” he stressed, saying that the institute has conducted research on a series of diseases, including HIV, Hepatitis B, Malaria, Diarrhea, TB, among others..