Philippines, Argentina approve Chinese vaccines

The Philippines and Argentina have become the latest countries to approve Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use.

A vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech on Monday was cleared for use in the Philippines, which is one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus in Southeast Asia. A similar authorization was granted in Argentina on Sunday for a vaccine developed by Sinopharm.

Enrique Domingo, director general of the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, said the approval for the Sinovac vaccine was granted “after a thorough and rigorous review of the currently available published and unpublished data by our regulatory and medical experts”.

Domingo told a news conference that the vaccine “satisfies the conditions of emergency use authorization”. It is a “safe” and “good option” for people with allergies, he added.

The Sinovac vaccine is the third to be given the green light in the nation, after approvals for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs.

The Philippine government aims to inoculate up to 70 million people this year, starting with healthcare workers, the elderly and the poor.

In Argentina, the government approval for the Sinopharm vaccine was stated in a resolution signed by Health Minister Carla Vizzotti.

The National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology earlier advised the Ministry of Health to include the vaccine in its national inoculation plan against COVID-19.

The Sinopharm vaccine becomes the fifth authorized for use against COVID-19 in Argentina, after the PfizerBioNTech and AstraZeneca shots, and those from Russia’s Sputnik V and Covishield, the latter produced by the Serum Institute of India.