5 hospitals tapped for Chinese vaccine trials

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FIVE hospitals in Metro Manila and Cebu City are set to host proposed clinical trials for a candidate vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which is being developed by the Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

These hospitals are the Philippine General Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, and the Manila Doctors Hospital, all in Manila; the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City; and Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario said the local counterpart of Sinovac, IP Biotech, has filed an application for the conduct of Phase 3 clinical trials for its

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Vaccine and it is being evaluated by a panel of vaccine experts of the Department of Health.

“They have already processed their applications for this Phase 3 clinical trials study. Let us just wait for further information because negotiations are still ongoing,” she said.

Sinovac’s inclusion as among potential collaborators of the Philippines in COVID-19 vaccine development and clinical trials was approved months ago by the Inter-Agency Task Force-Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

Sinovac’s vaccine candidate CoronaVac was reportedly approved for emergency use recently by China as part of a program to vaccinate high-risk groups such as medical staff.

China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a unit of state-owned pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), said it has also obtained emergency use approval for a coronavirus vaccine candidate. CNBG, which has two vaccine candidates in phase 3 clinical trials, did not say which of its vaccines had been cleared for emergency use.

China has been giving experimental coronavirus vaccines to high-risk groups since July, though officially it has given little details on which vaccine candidates have been given to high-risk people under the emergency use program and how many people have been vaccinated.

Vergeire warned the public against using the Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG), which is primarily used against tuberculosis, against COVID-19.

“As of now, we don’t have enough evidence that would say that BCG can have this good effect for COVID-19,” she said.

She said BCG is used for children to prevent tuberculosis but not for COVID-19.

“Let us just wait for adequate scientific evidence, results of the studies being undertaken in other countries so that we will be properly informed,” she said.

Earlier, the World Health Organization said it would evaluate evidence on BCG use for COVID-19.

Last month, researchers said the tuberculosis vaccine which is routinely given to children in countries with high rates of that bacterial disease might be helping to reduce deaths from COVID-19.

The researchers made the report in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

After accounting for differences in factors that might affect vulnerability to the virus — such as income, education, health services and age distribution — the researchers found that countries with higher rates of BCG vaccinations for tuberculosis had lower peak mortality rates from COVID-19.

A good example was Germany, which had different vaccine plans before East Germany and West Germany were unified in 1990, the researchers said. COVID-19 mortality rates among senior citizens are nearly three times higher in western Germany than in eastern Germany, where more older people received the vaccine as infants, they found. — With Reuters

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