{"id":7427,"date":"2020-05-08T23:15:16","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T23:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/kenya\/?p=7427"},"modified":"2020-05-08T23:15:16","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T23:15:16","slug":"kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race","title":{"rendered":"Kemri tests own drug, natural products in Covid-19 cure race"},"content":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has initiated development of a Covid-19 vaccine, giving hope to millions of Kenyans in need of an urgent remedy to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Appearing before the parliamentary Departmental Committee on Health yesterday, Kemri Director-General Yeri Kombe said the institute is ready to deal with the disease.\u201cThe initial phases of development of the vaccine candidate have commenced. The potential vaccine candidate will be subjected to the standard vaccine production process, which includes pre-clinical and clinical stages,\u201d Prof Kombe said.<\/p>\n

He said the institute has also begun exploring the efficacy of its in-house product (Zedupex) and other natural products against the disease that can be use in the management of Covid-19. However, he said its budget has been exhausted and requires more funds urgently to deal with effects of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need support to buy DNA and protein synthesisers, guillotine, mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography, freezers, among other equipment to be able to increase capacity for screening, kits production, and vaccine development,\u201d said Kombe.<\/p>\n

He also called on the government and donors to help the institute recruit more staff.\u201cWe need to increase manpower and trained personnel to support laboratory screening, vaccine development and diagnostics to improve the turn-around time and delivery. Staff on contract will be absorbed and recruited to support the processes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kombe said the government has given them the green light to recruit 62 scientists.\u201cWe have begun genome sequencing with 28 samples and plans to increase to 3,000 samples representative of the whole country will cost additional funds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More funds<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said genome analysis now constitutes an integral component of viral epidemiology, including surveillance, diagnosis, and the development of viral counter measures.<\/p>\n

He said more funds are needed to purchase lots of re-agents and materials being used for screening and testing for the virus.\u201cWe have utilised most of the available resources, thus there is a need to procure more laboratory re-agents and personal protective equipment (PPEs). We are using some of the money meant for research on these tasks. Our Sh158 million budget is exhausted,\u201d the director general said.<\/p>\n

He said many research proposals relating to the management of Covid-19 have been submitted by scientists, which if funded, will help the country in the fight against the pandemic.He said they need more N95 masks and only have 50 pieces remaining, which will be used in the next few days.<\/p>\n

Kombe called for predictable supply of consumables for testing. \u201cWe are awaiting 26,000 kits from Clinton Foundation and Government. We were only supplied with kits for the automated analysis amounting to 1,344. We will exhaust what we have in a day,\u201d he said.He lamented the delay in freight and clearance of important items and equipment procured, saying this delays urgent services.<\/p>\n

He said the institute\u2019s response activities include working closely with the Ministry of Health and together they have initiated several research interventions and innovations towards the fight against the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Kombe said Kemri has a number of laboratory facilities across Kenya that are undertaking testing for Covid-19, with a capacity of testing 10,000 samples per week. They are situated in Kilifi, Nairobi, Kericho, Kisumu and Busia.<\/p>\n

8,500 samples<\/strong><\/p>\n

To-date, he said, Kemri has screened 8,500 samples using a highly automated technique that uses Cobas 8800 and Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines.\u201cNine out of the 14 laboratories in the country with these equipment are in Kemri.<\/p>\n

Virus transmission media (VTM) allows the transfer of viruses for screening and further research. Kemri has been producing VTM for other viral research activities in Kenya for many years,\u201d Kombe said, adding that they have increased the production of VTM due to a shortage in the country.Currently, he said, the institute has supplied 10,000 VTM units to MoH, Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), private hospitals and counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have enough capacity to produce 20,000 VTM units per day. We are also producing an alcohol based hand sanitiser since 2014. To respond to Covid-19, the institute has produced 200,000 units, with about 6,000 produced daily. We are not only supplying in Kenya but Africa as a whole,\u201d Kombe said.<\/p>\n

He said Kemri is also developing PCR kits but to be able to produce the kits, a DNA synthesiser is being procured.\u201cKemri is deliverring point of care test (PoCT) kits, which are easy to use and deploy in health facilities, including those in remote areas and are cheaper than PCR.\u201cKemri has a capacity to produce 1,500 of these kits daily. We intend to produce 10,000 daily once additional procured equipment is received,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya: The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has initiated development of a Covid-19 vaccine, giving hope to millions of Kenyans in need of an urgent remedy to the pandemic. Appearing before the parliamentary Departmental Committee on Health yesterday, Kemri Director-General Yeri Kombe said the institute is ready to deal with the disease.\u201cThe initial phases of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,2111,8],"tags":[1539,429,672],"class_list":["post-7427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-coronavirus-in-kenya","category-homepage-english","tag-covid-19","tag-kemri","tag-kemsa"],"yoast_head":"\nKemri tests own drug, natural products in Covid-19 cure race - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has initiated development of a Covid-19 vaccine, giving hope to millions of Kenyans in need of an urgent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kemri tests own drug, natural products in Covid-19 cure race\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has initiated development of a Covid-19 vaccine, giving hope to millions of Kenyans in need of an urgent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-08T23:15:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/05\/uzoebadkrabmrar5eb5ae3404510.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"657\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"397\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kemri tests own drug, natural products in Covid-19 cure race\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-08T23:15:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race\"},\"wordCount\":759,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/05\/uzoebadkrabmrar5eb5ae3404510.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\",\"Kemri\",\"Kemsa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"Coronavirus in kenya\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/community\/kemri-tests-own-drug-natural-products-in-covid-19-cure-race\",\"name\":\"Kemri tests own drug, natural products in Covid-19 cure race - 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