Sinovac’s jab approaches; allow to continue

MOMENT OF LIGHT Vaccine Czar Carlito Gálvez Jr. talks to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III before the opening Monday of the Senate commission of the general inquiry into the government’s vaccination program on Monday. —PRIB SENATE

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines to be administered to Filipinos will arrive on February 20, but the Chinese manufacturer, Sinovac Biotech Ltd., has not yet applied for emergency use authorization (USA) from the Philippine regulator, senators reported Monday. .

“Why did you conclude a contract for 25 million doses [of the Sinovac vaccine] when there is still no USA [from the Food and Drug Administration or FDA]? “Senator Panfilo Lacson asked officials during the Senate committee’s investigation as a whole.

The US is a requirement for the mass inoculation program that the government will launch next month.

In Malacañang, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said on Monday that the Health Department had confirmed that the country would be purchasing 25 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine, known as CoronaVac.

Roque said that next month 50,000 doses will arrive for inoculation in priority sectors, such as front-line health workers, the elderly, poor people and uniformed personnel.

Around 950,000 doses will follow in March, 1 million doses each in April and May, 2 million in June and the final batch in December.

The priority areas for vaccination will be Metro Manila, the Cordillera administrative region, the Davao region and the Calabarzon region.

Senate hearing

FDA Director General Eric Domingo admitted during the Senate hearing that Sinovac had not yet submitted a US application, but added that the pharmaceutical company “could submit the application next week or very soon.”

That prompted Lacson’s question why a contract with Sinovac had been completed even without the US.

Secretary Carlito Gálvez Jr., the main executor of the National Working Group against COVID-19, explained that there were two “ways” in the acquisition of vaccines: financing and regulation. He said it was not necessary to carry out the second before finalizing the first, adding that this process does not preclude a “very rigorous supply agreement” with the supplier.

But Lacson wondered why Sinovac seemed to be given priority, considering that other companies, such as Pfizer in the United States and AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom, had already obtained USA.

At that point, Gálvez started talking about Sinovac clinical trials in other countries, but Lacson cut him off: “No, that’s not my point.”

Competition between countries

The senator said it made no sense to prioritize a company that had not even applied for authorization. But Gálvez explained that the government could not afford to deal only with manufacturers that had already obtained permission from the FDA.

“If you only negotiate with the US vaccine manufacturers, you will be in the queue … because there is some kind of competition” between countries seeking vaccine supplies, he said.

Gálvez stressed that Sinovac would not be able to deliver to the Philippines if it failed to obtain FDA approval. “We will not allow inoculation” of the Sinovac vaccine without US, he said.

The vaccine, which the US received in China last August, uses inactivated SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. “It is inactive, that is, natural. It is a weakened form of [the] virus that is the traditional vaccine that we have known for 300 years ”, said Roque.

Aside from the Sinovac vaccines, Roque said the Philippines had negotiated 30 million doses of Novavax and 10 million of AstraZeneca.

Delivery of 30 million doses of Covovax manufactured in India will begin in the third quarter of the year and will be completed in five to six months, according to an official from Faberco Life Sciences Inc., the private company that represents the Serum Institute of India (SII ) In Philippines.

The Philippine government has signed an agreement with the SII to purchase the Indian vaccine developed by the American company Novovax. Faberco will coordinate efforts to deliver the vaccine in the country, according to its medical director, Ma. Villa Luningning.

Covovax is a recombinant vaccine that has a spike protein that helps in the development of antibodies that could fight the coronavirus, Villa said.

Private companies

It also has the adjuvant Novovax that increases the immune response and stimulates high levels of neutralizing antibodies, he said. The adjuvant is organic and can reduce the dose of antigens needed to achieve the desired immune response, he said.

More private companies have joined the effort to purchase the AstraZeneca vaccine for their workers, according to presidential entrepreneurship advisor Joey Concepción.

Concepción said that the total number of doses that private companies would acquire would reach 6 million doses, which would cover 3 million people.

The initial agreement, signed last November, provided for 2.6 million doses.

Half of the doses that the private sector would acquire would be donated to the government. The doses would arrive in May or June.

The government will spend at least P140.5 billion to vaccinate at least 100 million Filipinos against COVID-19, with most of the money coming from the national budget and loans, the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Monday.

The DOF said the health department had set aside P2.5 billion in its budget for mass vaccination this year, while P70 billion in unscheduled appropriations would go towards the procurement and deployment of vaccines.

National Treasurer Rosalía de León said that the items not programmed in the budget would be financed by loans or new income. –WITH REPORTS FROM JEROME ANING, LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND BEN O. DE VERA INQ

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