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The government was reminded to be careful with Sinovac Biotechcoronavirus vaccine after Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. announced that negotiations are underway to acquire potentially up to 50 million doses.
The main executor of the National Task Force against COVID-19 said on Wednesday that the national government is already looking for sources of doses of CoronaVac, the vaccine developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company.
“We are looking mainly at China, Sinovac, this is one of our sources that we will take more or less 20 to 50 million doses there,” he said, as quoted in a televised briefing.
In addition, the country is also threshing agreements on vaccines being developed by the UK, India and Australia.
Sinovac previously submitted its applications to the Philippines to conduct phase III clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine in the country.
As of November 11, it has passed the preliminary review of the panel of vaccine experts chaired by the Department of science and technology and is seeking approval from the ethics board and local Food and Drug Administration.
Following the announcement, some Filipinos on social media voiced distrust of the Chinese-developed vaccine, as recent reports have not given much confidence in its efficacy so far.
“Why China? It has not even been proven to be 95% effective. And no one knows if the human trials are valid as they don’t share any scientific information. Well, as long as they give it to their supermajority and the trolls, then why the hell not? ”Wrote a Facebook user in response to Gálvez’s announcement.
“We will opt for Pfizer / Moderna / AstraZeneca. We will not bet on Chinese vaccines. Kahit kami pa ang magbayad, enough safe lang kami, ”said another user online, referring to other COVID-19 vaccines from the United States and the United Kingdom.
“No, thanks for Sinovac. It is made of inactivated SARS-Cov2 virus, the only information China revealed about it. Efficacy is not mentioned in trials, ”said a social media user from Twitter said.
Other Twitter user he called the government’s decision a “threat to public safety.”
“It also has lower levels of protective antibodies in the bloodstream compared to Moderna and Pfizer,” the user said online.
Concerns
Earlier this month, BBC News noted that Brazil, one of the hardest hit by the virus, halted the clinical trial conducted by Sinovac after a “serious adverse incident” in which a clinical trial volunteer died.
Sinovac’s Brazilian partner said the suspension of the trial was linked to a death, but insisted it was not linked to CoronaVac.
Secretary of Health of the State of São Paulo Jean Gorinchteyn confirmed that death was an “external event” not related to the vaccine.
Recently, the results of its first clinical trials were published which were described by reports as “mixed”.
The Washington Post said that CoronaVac “generated lower levels of protective antibodies in the bloodstream compared to those that arise in recovered coronavirus patients.”
“By comparison, Moderna and Pfizer, which have separate experimental vaccines, had reported antibody levels equal to or higher than those produced in recovered coronavirus patients. These early results put Sinovac on the defensive to demonstrate that its vaccine is effective in ongoing phase 3 trials, ”their report noted.
He also cited an associate dean of clinical research at the University of Colorado, who said that information on CoronaVac’s antibody level was an area of ”concern.”
“It’s an important point here, in terms of comparing this vaccine to, for example, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.” Thomas campbell said.
A vaccinologist and a professor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester also echoed the same sentiment in a different report.
“I would worry … that [CoronaVac] seemed to induce lower levels of antibodies than we’ve seen with other vaccines and lower than those seen in most people who have had the disease and have recovered, “said Dr. Gregory Poland he told National Public Radio.
A spokesperson for Sinovac said it cannot immediately release its own preliminary Phase III efficacy rate, as there have not been enough COVID-19 cases in its study population.
“For the preliminary analysis of the results of Phase 3, we need to accumulate a certain number of cases for the data analysts to carry out their analysis,” the spokesman told the Washington Post.
“We do not have this data yet, so we cannot respond yet,” the official added.
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