The Russian-developed vaccine against the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Sputnik V, developed by the Gamayela Institute in Moscow will still have to undergo clinical trial in the Philippines.
The Department of Health (DOH) made this assurance.
“Even though dumaan na ‘yan sa mga regulatory procedure sa Russia, pagdating niyan sa Pilipinas, dadaan pa rin iyan dito sa atin na mga procedure. It’s different when it arrives here in the country. (Even though it has undergone regulatory procedure in Russia, once it arrives in the Philippines, it will still have to undergo our own procedures. It’s different when it arrives in country),” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire explained.
She furthered, “we have the vaccine panel, we also have FDA to do that because we have experts on that. Pag-aaralan natin ‘yung share nila. Makikita natin itong mga allegations kung talaga bang hindi dumaan sa Phase 1, hindi ba dumaan sa Phase 2. Ano ba yung mga naging findings during these different phases of the trial? (We are going to study their share. We will look into the allegations that it has failed to undergo Phase 1, Phase 2. What were the findings during these different phases of the trial?)”
According to the Russian Ministry of Health, the immunity against the virus will last for two years for those who will get vaccinated.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shared that a developed vaccine needs to undergo different studies such as the pre-clinical research where the vaccine is tried on animals. People with strong immune system are to participate in Phase 1 while the vaccine will be tried on a large group of people who have been exposed to the virus for Phase 2 and 3.
The Vaccine Expert Panel led by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is currently discussing Phase 3 of the clinical trial of the vaccine in the country.
“Depende pa ‘yan. We have to learn more about it. Wala pa tayong documents, we need more information (That still depends. We have to learn more about it. We don’t have documents, we need more information),” DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III pointed out.
The distribution of the vaccine to the medical frontliners might be done in August while a large scale production of the vaccine is expected in September. Russia is also set to conduct a mass vaccination in October.
Report from Mark Fetalco
