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"There are lots of things we don't do because we have no money," Gamaniel told Nature. For instance, the institute needs 50 million naira in addition to its running costs to mount an 800-patient phase III clinical trial on its anti-malaria drug.
In addition, one of the institute's flagship laboratories, set up in 2005 with a grant of US$25 million from NIAID, is lying idle. NIPRD needs about US$180,000 a year to cover maintenance costs and ensure a constant supply of electricity, Gamaniel says.
Joseph Okogun, a consultant phytochemist for NIPRD, says that without funding for this lab they cannot carry out essential analyses of the structures of chemical compounds in their tuberculosis drug candidate, which is a mix of herbal extracts that have been shown to slow the growth of the tuberculosis bacterium.
