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China-based drug maker Sinopharm and Sinovac will apply for Emergency Use Authorization (USA) for their coronavirus vaccines from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Philippines.
Philippine Ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana said during a briefing in Malacañang on Monday that the two companies plan to submit their application sometime this week.
Sta. Romana said the Chinese government had granted provisional approval for general use to the vaccine produced by Sinopharm, which had previously been approved for emergency use.
Sinopharm’s approval will allow the Chinese government to increase vaccine production.
The Chinese government has yet to approve the Sinovac application, according to Sta. Romana.
“Sinovac has a pending application and they informed us that they expect to hear from the authorities sometime this month, hopefully in mid-January,” he said.
FDA CEO Eric Domingo said last week that only the US-based Pfizer had applied for an EUA.
President Rodrigo Duterte had authorized the FDA to issue USA to reduce the approval time of a vaccine from six months to just one month.
Sta. Romana claimed that she did not know where the doses of the Sinopharm vaccine for members of the Presidential Security Group came from.
“I have no knowledge about it. We are also curious to know but, sadly, we are not involved, ”he said.
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