Approved COVID-19 vaccine by April?

MANILA — A vaccine against the coronavirus disease may be approved by April 2021, the best case scenario, the country’s Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

“The best case scenario, if clinical trials are completed by December or January and a company would file with FDA an application then that’s possible by April 2021 that we will have an approved vaccine,” FDA Director-General Eric Domingo said in a forum.

“Best case scenario ‘yun. ‘Yung three to six months (clinical trials) magiging three months and they will complete all of their analysis and submit immediately to FDA,” he added. (That is the best case scenario. It means the clinical trials which will last three to six months will just be three months and they will complete all of their analysis and submit immediately to FDA.)

Department of Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said the timeframe of three to six months is the projection of experts.

“You can already estimate the very early forecast we have of second quarter of 2021 is still the best forecast that we can give,” Dela Peña said.

17 vaccine developers Dela Peña said that Philippines is in talks with 17 vaccine developers from different countries as it seeks to source a COVID-19 vaccine that will help end the country’s coronavirus outbreak.

Six foreign pharmaceutical companies already signed confidentiality disclosure agreements (CDA) with the government. A CDA allows clinical data sharing.

Of the six vaccine makers, Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute and China’s Sinovac expressed intent to hold clinical trials and venture into local manufacturing in the Philippines. China’s Sinopharm signified interest to supply their products to the country.

Meanwhile, China’s ZFSW, Taiwan’s Adimmune and Australia’s University of Queensland are discussing with Philippine authorities for possible clinical trials.

Candidate vaccines that will be included in the World Health Organization’s solidarity trials will be tested in eight trial

zones across the country and will involve 13 health facilities.

According to IATF’s Resolution 68, the WHO solidarity vaccine trial will be prioritized in the assignment of trial zones. It also said that vaccine recipients under the solidarity trial will be recruited from barangays with highest

COVID-19 cases.

The Philippines has 296,775 confirmed COVID-19 infections, with 5,127 deaths as of Thursday. —

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Sinovac Biotech vaccines, one of 11 Chinese companies approved to carry out clinical trials of potential coronavirus vaccines, are displayed at a press conference during a media tour of a new factory built to produce Covid-19 coronavirus vaccines.