AT least 3 to 5 million doses of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine to be procured by the government next year may come from a Chinese or Russian drug makers.
During an online forum organized by the Philippines Graphic and BusinessMirror on Thursday, Chief implementer of the government’s national policy on Covid-19 Carlito G. Galvez said they are now negotiating with China-based Sinovac Biotech and Gamaleya Research Institute in Russia for the said acquisition.
“I just came from a dinner meeting with the Chinese ambassador (Huang Xilian) and the meeting was very very fruitful. More or less there [is] some sort of an assurance that we will be having a Chinese vaccine by March,” Galvez said.
“Also this Friday (Dec. 11) I will talk with Gamaleya,” he added.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the government is also considering purchasing vaccine from Pfizer-BionTech by the second or third quarter of 2020.
Also included in the shortlist of Covid-19 vaccines to be purchased by the government are those from Astra Zeneca and Moderna.
Part of the review
Roque said Sinovac remains to be part of the shortlist amid the allegations in international media against the said company.
It was reported that CEO of Sinovac admitted in court to paying bribe to certain regulators in China for an earlier vaccine it developed.
Roque pointed out the government is aware of the said issue and will be considering it in the review of Sinovac’s application in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its vaccine to be used locally.
“We will only allow a vaccine to be used if it is proven to be safe and effective against Covid-19,” Roque said.
Malacañang is also confident any bribery attempt will not succeed in the FDA.
Additional supply
Galvez said they are targeting to complete the bilateral talks for Covid-19 before the end of the month as they attempt to start the government’s vaccination drive by the first quarter of 2021.
“Most of the pre-order will take three to six months before the Covid-vaccine will be delivered,” the vaccine czar explained.
He said this was necessary even if the government was already able to secure 20 million doses from the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) initiative being supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“We will only have 3 million on July (2021) and the other 17 million will be by the end of Dec. (2021) or early Jan. (2022). So we need to add more . . . . different strategies that we could access [vaccines],” Galvez said.
The government is eyeing to vaccinate at least 25 million from priority sectors including health care workers, senior citizens, indigent population as well as uniformed personnel, next year using public funds.
It hopes another 10 million people will also be inoculated from the vaccine through its joint partnership with the private companies, which will focus on priority sectors such teachers, social workers, government employees, as well as overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
Currently, the government has yet to announce it it has finalized any deal with a Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer using taxpayer money.
Education drive
In the same webinar on vaccines, a Department of Health (DOH) official expressed confidence the education campaign they will launch this month will boost the Filipinos’ confidence in Covid-19 vaccines.
“We would be engaging the local government units and then go on to mobilize the community; the Department of Health together with the vaccine czar [Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.] and the rest of the other agencies in charge of this vaccine implementation [are] very much aware of the importance of educating the public regarding this immunization for Covid-19,” said Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire at the Graphic-BusinessMirror webinar in partnership with the Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP), on “Health and Economic Prospects 2021 –Sparking Home: Can a vaccine see an end to the COVID-19 pandemic?”
Recognizing that one of the major challenges in the coming weeks and months lies in the capacity of the education campaign to reach and impact the communities, Vergeire said they have already started using different social media platforms.
“So that we can be able to increase awareness of our population, also this month we are going to start engaging with our local governments – with the hope that we would be able to harness their cooperation in mobilizing the community and also providing support to the department and also other agencies in giving out this complete set of information to the public on what would be the advantages and what would be the expectation for the Covid-19 immunization,” she said.
At the webinar, Governors Jonvic Remulla of Cavite and Dakila “Dax” Cua of Quirino province, as well as Binan, Laguna Mayor Walfredo Arman Dimaguila aired the concerns LGUs have in mounting the unprecedented vaccination.
Vergeire said the confidence of Filipinos in a vaccine has improved, citing a survey by the Social Weather Stations Inc. using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviews of 1,249 adult Filipinos,
showing that 66 percent of the Filipinos are willing to get a Covid-19 vaccine 31 percent are still unwilling to be vaccinated.
She expressed hope they can “increase much more the confidence of the people in these vaccines,” adding that, “This is very critical for us to be able to control the transmission of the disease here in our country.”
Vaccine progress and procurement
Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III appealed to the public not to be complacent now that recent news on vaccine progress and procurement has been holding out hope for many Filipinos.
Duque stressed that the risk of contracting Covid-19 is still as high, and that the fight against the pandemic in the country is not yet over.
“We cannot relax because of the news of vaccines. We still have to sustain strong health measures even when the immunization against Covid-19 in our country begins. Otherwise, we might undo all the progress we’ve made over the past months,” Duque said.
Among the vaccine developers applying for a clinical trial in the Philippines, Clover Biopharmaceuticals has already received a positive recommendation from both the Vaccines Expert Panel (VEP) and the Single Joint Review Ethics Board (SJREB) and is currently undergoing other processes to proceed with their application at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Sinovac was already given a positive recommendation by the VEP, while AstraZeneca and Janssen have already passed the ethics review of the SJREB.
In compliance with FDA Circular 2020-029 or the Guidance on the Applications for the Conduct of Covid-19 Clinical Trials, vaccine developers would need to obtain a positive recommendation from both the VEP and the SJREB before they could have their applications reviewed by the FDA.
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