Panel clears Chinese vaccine candidate for trials

A POTENTIAL vaccine for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical had been cleared for clinical trials in the country, an official of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Thursday.

Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo,

FDA officer in charge, confirmed that the vaccine expert panel (VEP) from the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) approved the Sinovac drug for Phase 3 trials.

“We are waiting for them (Sinovac Biotech) to submit documents, because they are already endorsed by VEP,” he said during a virtual press briefing.

Sinovac got the clearance on Monday, Domingo added. The panel reviews vaccines applying for Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.

He said the next step was for the Ethics Board, which oversees the choosing of candidates for the trials, to give its go-signal.

“The [clearance of Sinovac] in the ethics board is still in progress, and Sinovac will be meeting the Ethics Board this week,” he added.

Once the board green-lights the

candidate vaccine, the FDA will process the application within 14 to 21 weeks, Domingo noted.

Asked if clinical trials for Sinovac could be conducted in November, he said such a timeline is “possible.”

The Department of Health (DoH) recently said it was looking at five hospitals — Philippine General Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, Manila Doctors Hospital, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center — where the Phase 3 trials would be conducted.

Once approved, thousands of people would be tested to determine how safe and effective the vaccine is.

Sinovac Biotech is one of three vaccine manufacturers applying for clinical trials in the country. The two others are the Gamaleya Research Institute of Russia, which is touting its Sputnik V; and the Belgium-based Janssen Pharma, a subsidiary of multinational company Johnson & Johnson.

Even as the quest for a vaccine continues, the country logged 2,261 new Covid patients on Thursday, bringing the total of infections to 348,698.

There were 385 new survivors, in addition to 294,161 recoveries, and 50 deaths were added, bringing the toll to 6,497.

In his public address on Wednesday, President Rodrigo Duterte said the government now has the money to procure coronavirus vaccines but it needs more to be able to inoculate all 113 million Filipinos.

He stressed that every Filipino should receive the vaccine “without exception,” but the poor and members of security forces would be given priority.

Duterte reiterated that he prefers the vaccines to come from either China or Russia.

He also said Russia wanted to put up a vaccine plant in the Philippines.

In a press briefing on Thursday, Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said the government had set aside more than P2 billion for the procurement of 40 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines for 20 million individuals.

He bared that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd estimated that each dose would cost $10. Two doses are needed for each patient.

He said the funding for the vaccines is included in the proposed 2021 budget. If a vaccine becomes available and the budget is not enacted, the government will borrow from Landbank and Development Bank of the Philippines.

Roque said vaccines should be distributed for free under the Universal Health Care Law.

But because the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. lacked funds, free vaccines might not be available to every one, he said.