MANILA – The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of the Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) has approved the country’s participation in clinical trials for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine.
“The recommendations of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on the participation of the Philippines in the clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines are hereby approved,” the IATF-EID announced in its Resolution No. 39 released over the weekend.
The policy-making body in the government’s coronavirus has tasked the Food and Drug Administration to help with the issuance of a permit for the conduct of clinical trials in the country.
According to the IATF-EID, the country will be collaborating with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China National Pharmaceutical Group or Sinopharm, as well as Taiwan’s Adimmune Corporation and Academia Sinica.
The vaccine being developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sinopharm and the Wuhan Institute of Virology has entered the second phase of clinical trials, with 96 people being given the experimental vaccine.
President Rodrigo Duterte in his report to Congress last week mentioned that the DOST has been in talks with Chinese and Taiwanese organizations for possible clinical trials, as the world searchers for a cure or vaccine to end the coronavirus pandemic.
The Philippines is also part of the World Health Organization’s solidarity trial – a global effort to find a cure for the viral illness.
COVID-19, a disease spread through droplets when a person who has it coughs or sneezes, has infected more than five million people worldwide and killed 338,000. There were 13,777 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country./PN
