THE Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) on Monday night said it has granted separate licenses for Baricinix and Barinez as additional drugs that can be used by health facilities for the treatment of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Eric Domingo, FDA director general, said his office issued permits to Baricinix and Barinez (Barcinitib) which are usually used for treatment of moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis.
He likened the two drugs to tocilizumab, which some hospitals are using to treat COVID-19 patients but which is experiencing a supply shortage at the moment.
Domingo said the country is expected to receive within the week the equivalent of tocilizumab from Chinese firm Livzon.
Meanwhile, National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said government is looking at vaccinating all Filipinos, if not at least 70 percent of the population, by February 2022 in anticipation of the start of the campaign and election period.
This developed, as President Duterte himself expressed hope that the country will be able to fully vaccinate 35 percent of the targeted population by the end of October and 50 percent by the end of the year.
Galvez said the country wants to avoid the experience of other countries like the United States and Israel where elections became “super spreader” events for COVID-19.
Testing czar Vince Dizon said the target of the government is to vaccinate at least up to 70 percent of the population by February next year.
“It seems that our goal of having 70 percent fully vaccinated by February of 2022 can be attained so that when the campaign period starts, our countrymen will be safe… Given the supply, I think we can do it,” Dizon said.
Galvez again reiterated that the government needs to raise its vaccine population target to between 80 percent to 90 percent from the 70 percent to achieve herd immunity.
He said this is achievable with the steady arrival of vaccines procured from the different manufacturers as well as from the donations coming for other countries and the COVAX facility.
He also said that the country expects the number of delivered vaccines to reach 100 million doses this month, including the 1.015 million doses of Pfizer vaccines that are arriving in the country today (Wednesday).
The Philippines has secured a total of 187.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for 2021, of which 77.4 million doses have been delivered since February.
Galvez said that the updated vaccination plan will be presented to the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) for its approval.
He also said that the NTF has begun to assess and evaluate the safety and cost-effectiveness of various vaccines through the Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) especially with the emergence of different COVID-19 variants and the development of reformulated boosters as well as the new generations of vaccines. The VEP is expected to submit this quarter a new COVID-19 vaccine portfolio that will be the basis for procuring the country’s 2022 supply.
The NTF has already started negotiating with four to five manufacturers to secure its initial supply allocation target of at least 90 million doses in 2022. The goal is to sign term sheet agreements with various vaccine makers this month to lock in the supply agreements and complete the contracts by year-end. — With Victor Reyes
