12.7M kids, teens can receive vaccines
BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and GERARD NAVAL
GOVERNMENT will start the nationwide vaccination minors aged 12 to 17 years, regardless of whether they have comorbidities, on November 3, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said yesterday.
The government started the pilot testing of the pediatric vaccination on October 15 in eight hospitals in Metro Manila, limited to children with comorbidity and children of health workers. The program was later expanded to 28 hospitals in Metro Manila. On October 29, Galvez said, the pediatric vaccination will be implemented in 40 to 50 more hospitals nationwide.
The Department of Health said about 12.7 million children and adolescents aged 12 to 17 years will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines.
“We will begin the nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccination among all children aged 12 to 17 starting November 3,” said Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
She also said Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will still be used for the nationwide rollout of the pediatric vaccination.
The DOH said that as of October 26, 18,666 minors with comorbidities have received their first dose.
Galvez, also chief of the National Task Force against COVID-19, on Monday said the government is targeting to complete the vaccination of some 12 million minors aged 12 to 17 years by December.
In an interview with CNN Philippines yesterday, he said the vaccination of all minors “could start by November 3, nationwide.”
Galvez also said the expansion of the vaccination will help the government reach its target of administering 1.5 million shots per day by November.
“Our target is to finish the children’s vaccination by December at the same time, to finish the students and teachers and school vaccination by the end of November,” he said in Filipino.
In an interview with radio dzBB, Galvez said private businesses which have purchased their own vaccines may use their supply to vaccinate the children of their employees, provided that they coordinate it with the DOH.
Only Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are allowed to be administered on minors.
BOOSTER, 3RD SHOTS
Galvez said the government is waiting for the approved amendment of the emergency use authorization (EUA) to start the administering of either the third or booster shots.
Manufacturers are expected to submit their applications for the amended EUA of their boosters within the week.
Galvez said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the World Health Organization-Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (WHO-SAGE) are also expected to release their final recommendation on which vaccine brand can be used for a third dose or booster shot by mid-November.
Vergeire issued a similar statement on Monday. She said despite approval from the DOH and the Health Technology Assessment Council, the country is still waiting for the SAGE recommendation which she said will be out in November, and for the FDA to issue separate EUAs for the vaccines set to be used as as booster or third doses.
A booster shot is one given to persons whose immune response may have weakened over time a while a third dose is for individuals who may not have had enough immune response from the first two doses.
Vaccine expert panel member Rontgene Solante, during the “Laging Handa” public briefing, acknowledged that more than half of the targeted population has yet to be vaccinated at this time, but a booster or third shot may be necessary for the healthcare workers who are directly taking of COVID-19 patients.
EQUAL ACCESS
President Duterte during the Association of Southeast Asian Nation plus United States (ASEAN+ US) virtual summit, reiterated his call for all countries to have equal access to vaccine sand medicine amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The President also thanked the US for its “generous offer of vaccines for the region, including the Philippines.”
He also said that for the world to succeed against the pandemic, “we need to further strengthen bilateral, regional and international cooperation to ensure universal access to COVID-19 vaccines and medicines.”
The Department of Interior and Local Government vowed to file charges against local chief executives (LCEs) who will fail to ramp up vaccination efforts or for wastage of vaccines in their areas.
At the “Laging Handa,” Interior Undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said Interior Secretary Eduardo Año has issued a series of memorandum circulars about the need to ramp up the vaccination.
Authorities earlier announced the vaccination will be stepped up with the arrival of large number of vaccines in an attempt to vaccinate 70 percent of the country’s population eligible to receive the vaccine before the end of the year.
“Our local chief executives and their department heads who will be remiss, indifferent or will have unjustified failure to ramp up the vaccination in their area or there will be wastage of vaccines, may face charges for neglect of duty or misconduct,” said Malaya.
“It will be the DILG that will file charges against them and they can be suspended or removed from the service if they are proven (guilty), if they they are proven they violated the Local Government Code and other laws,” said Malaya.
Año, in a statement, said 40 million doses of vaccines were recently sent to the provinces, “thus we need the LGUs to double their efforts.”
“As they say this is now ‘vax to max’… Let’s have a truly Merry Christmas this year,” said Año.
“Now that we have a steady supply of vaccines, we need to ensure the timely distribution and administration of available vaccines not only to prevent wastage of resources but also to achieve population protection by year-end,” he added.
MOLNUPIRAVIR
Molnupiravir will be available in the country next month, according to its authorized importer and distributor, MedEthix Inc.
The Philippines is included in the multi-country clinical trial of the antiviral drug. Early this month at the Laging Handa briefing, FDA chief Eric Domingo said the agency has granted compassionate special permits (CSPs) to four hospitals for the use of the molnupiravir. He also said based on interim analysis, the drug “can prevent possibly 50 percent of people going into severe COVID and dying from COVID.”
Molnupiravir is made by Merck & Co. Inc. (MSD) in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. MSD recently entered into licensing agreements with eight Indian generic manufacturers to supply the drug to India and to more than 100 low- and middle-income countries including the Philippines.
Monaliza Salian, MedEthix co-founder, said in a press briefing the company was appointed to import molnupiravir to the Philippines by Aurobindo Pharma based in Hyderabad, India which will manufacture the brand Molnaflu (molnupiravir).
Aurobindo said they obtained their voluntary in-licensing deals from Merck for the supply of molnupiravir to pharmaceutical markets in Asia, including the Philippines.
The drug will “definitely not be expensive and will be affordable at about P130 to P150 per capsule,” said Meny Hernandez, president of JackPharma, a pharmaceutical company tapped by MedEthix to distribute the new drug to frontliners and other healthcare professionals .
Molnupiravir comes in a 200-mg capsule with a recommended regimen of 800 mg to be taken twice daily for five days or as prescribed by a physician. It comes in a bottle of 40 capsules, which is the entire dose.
At a max of P150 per capsule, an entire dose of 40 capsules will cost, at most, P6,000.
The new drug was developed by Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Merck, an American multinational pharmaceutical company known as MSD outside the United States and Canada.
Molnupiravir alters the coronavirus virus to make it harmless, according to MedEthix. “Even if the virus replicates, it is no longer deadly,” it said in a press statement. — With Victor Reyes and Paul Icamina
