The Department of Health is looking at five hospitals that would participate in Phase 3 of the clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines developed by China-based Sinovac Biotech, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Monday.
These five hospitals include the Philippine General Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, Manila Doctors Hospital, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, and Vicente Sotto Medical Center, Vergeire said.
“Nasa Phase 2 na ito (Sinovac), at iyong Phase 3 ginagawa na sa ibang bansa katulad ng Brazil,” Vergeire said in an online briefing.
(It is in Phase 2 (Sinovac), and Phase 3 is already being done in other countries like Brazil.)
“May mga applications na [from local manufacturing companies] for Phase 3 clinical trials. When further details are available, we will inform you, pero ongoing na iyong submission ng final confidentiality disclosure agreement, at pinag-aaralan na ito ng vaccine experts panel natin,” she added.
(There are applications [from local manufacturing companies] for Phase 3 clinical trials. When further details are available, we will inform you, but the submission of the final confidentiality disclosure agreement is ongoing, and our vaccine experts panel is studying it.)
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DOH eyes five hospitals for China-made COVID-19 vaccine trials
The government is coordinating with 16 other vaccine manufacturers worldwide for COVID-19 access.
As of August 30, 2020, the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines was at 217,396. Of this number, 157,403 recovered, while 3,520 died.
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara earlier said the public could avail COVID-19 vaccine by the second quarter of 2021.
Guevarra said in a press conference that the Philippines would have access to the COVID-19 vaccine by the fourth quarter of 2020 but only for clinical trials.
“If we’re talking about the availability en masse, we believe this is going to happen in the second quarter of next year,” Guevara said.
“But if we’re talking about the clinical trials, it will start in the fourth quarter of this year,” she added.
According to Dr. Jaime Montoya, executive director of the DOST Philippine Council for Health Research Development, the timeline of the vaccine’s availability would depend on the country that developed the vaccine.