London, May 5 , 2020 (AltAfrica)-About two weeks after launching a herbal drug that he touted as cure for coronavirus, Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina has announced the start of a fresh clinical trials for another herbal vaccine to treat coronavirus

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But unlike the controversial herbal drink-COVID ORGANICS, president Andry said work on the vaccine will get support from scientists in the US in the area of research.

Andry Rajoelina said the vaccine trials to commence next week will be produced from artemisia plant which has been the source of the Covid-Organics tonic.

Aside the proposed new herbal vaccine- the president said he is also pursuing validation from the World Heath Organization (WHO) for the the initial herbal drink.

He also asked local farmers to increase production of the herbal plant.

“I encourage Malagasy farmers to cultivate Artemisia in order to increase our production capacity amounting to 3000 tonnes per year. The value in tonnes of Artemisia is $ 3000 vs $ 350 for rice,” he said.

Une usine pharmaceutique sera mise en place d’ici un mois afin d’augmenter la capacité de production du CovidOrganics. Il sera administré sous d’autres formes telles que les injections.

— Andry Rajoelina (@SE_Rajoelina) May 4, 2020

The WHO said in a statement sent to the BBC that it did not recommend “self-medication with any medicines… as a prevention or cure for Covid-19”.

The Covid-Organics drink has been delivered to other African countries including Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea while Tanzanian President John Magufuli said he will send a plane to Madagascar to collect a batch of the drink

Republic of Congo is the latest country after Equatorial Guinea to order for Covid-Organics . Madagascar is also donating the herbal drug to ECOWAS countries as it hopes the continent will unite behind its remedy for the coronavirus.

Covid-Organics was developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (Imra).

President Andry Rajoelina has been inviting his fellow African leaders to patronize the drug he said has been effective in treating patients.

Many countries have already started work on a vaccine for coronavirus but results are expected in over a year.

There is currently no known cure for coronavirus