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MANILA, Philippines – Get ready with storage facilities for China’s coronavirus vaccines.
This was the message brought home by the Philippine ambassador to China, who gave an update on the development of Chinese vaccines for SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19 and which originated in China.
At a briefing at the Palace on Thursday (October 22), Ambassador José Santiago “Chito” Sta. Romana said that vaccine distribution would be “a challenge” as the Philippines was among the “priority” recipients of vaccines. Chinese.
“We have to prepare for the distribution and deployment of the vaccine,” he said. “That’s why these Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been telling us that what is really required is cold chain storage facilities across the country or in certain strategic areas,” St. Romana said.
“Vaccines have to be handled very well before they can be implemented,” he said. If they are not protected from the tropical climate, vaccines could lose effectiveness, he added.
With vaccine trials in China advancing to Phase 3, he said, the Philippine Embassy in Beijing continues to connect Chinese pharmaceuticals and Philippine science and health officials.
He said that in China “now three to four vaccines are being tested.” A vaccine, Sta. Romana said it is close to completing phase 3 of the trial “and so far the results have been quite good.”
“There have been no reports of an adverse reaction” to the vaccine, he said.
The ambassador said that another Chinese vaccine is in phase 3 testing and in an “international experiment” in Brazil and the United Arab Emirates. However, several reports said that Brazil is falling behind in accepting the Chinese vaccine.
Filipinos from the Middle East are among the participants in vaccine trials.
“This is important because the vaccines that are being developed in China have been tested among Chinese patients,” Sta. Romana said.
“But it is important to also test it with citizens of other countries so that they are testing it with different nationalities,” he said.
Sta. Romana also reported that Chinese authorities had begun to use, for emergencies, a type of coronavirus vaccine for Chinese workers on the front lines of the fight against the pandemic, including workers in hospitals, airports, seaports and customs personnel.
Employees of pharmaceutical companies and ordinary citizens in China have also volunteered for vaccine trials, he added.
Once the trials proved successful, mass production is expected to begin “in November and December,” he said.
In answering a question, Sta. Romana said that while the Chinese did not impose any conditions on the distribution of the vaccines, the Philippines first required approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
When asked if China has committed to establishing the number of vaccine doses to be administered and whether they will be free, Sta. Romana replied: “This is now up for discussion. This is an issue that will involve further changes and discussion, so I cannot give you a definitive answer at this time. “
But he said the Chinese had been talking about producing hundreds of millions of vaccine doses.
“So a lot of that in terms of numbers will depend on its production, and I know that the Chinese, from all the reports, have now been preparing,” Sta. Romana said.
“They are preparing their manufacturing facilities for mass production of vaccines at the time the approval is announced,” he said.
TSB
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