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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 9) – A Chinese company close to conducting clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country will undergo an investigation related to past allegations of bribery, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Wednesday.
The Washington Post reported on December 4 that Sinovac Biotech was found to have a history of bribing Chinese drug regulators to secure vaccine approval. Citing court records, the news outlet said that Sinovac’s chief executive officer allegedly delivered payments to receive expedited approvals for its SARS vaccine in 2003 and the swine flu vaccine in 2009. However, the Washington Post said there are no evidence that the vaccines involved in the bribery problem were defective.
Duque said they are aware of the allegations. He added that the panel of vaccine experts is tasked with validating the news report so that Philippine authorities can make an informed decision on whether to allow Sinovac to conduct trials in the country or to allow emergency use of its “CoronaVac” vaccine.
“The prudent thing is to investigate, to validate. If it is true, it is up to the panel of vaccine experts to include this in their final report and also in the FDA,” he said at a news conference. “[Para] we can be sure that we will not be victims of such questionable transactions if that actually happens. “
[Translation: So we can be sure we will not fall victims to their questionable transactions if proven to be true.]Vaccine Czar Carlito Gálvez Jr. was quoted in a television interview Wednesday that Sinovac could be the first vaccine to be distributed in the country. He is also “a few more documents” away from holding his trial in the Philippines.
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