Early this March, the Philippines
commenced its vaccination program to immunize Filipinos against the ravages of
COVID-19. Thus far it has been both slow going and limited in scope, with
vaccination priority being for the medical front-liners. In addition, what
vaccines are being used right now are mere donations: Sinovac’s CoronaVac from
China and AstraZeneca’s vaccine, by way of the COVAX facility. The national
government has made deals for more doses of the vaccines from their respective
manufacturers, but it is still looking to fill a massive order for mass
population immunization. Now they are turning back to one of the earliest
nations to offer their own COVID vaccines: Russia.
CNN Philippines reports that the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines is moving to confer with Russian research institute Gamaleya about
buying no less than 2 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, Gam-COVID-Vac or
better known as Sputnik V. In a statement this Thursday, March 18, vaccine czar
Carlito Galvez Jr. notes that the potential purchase of Sputnik V could arrive
in the country next month, where they could be put to use in the vaccination
program immediately now that this vaccine is nearing clearance for Emergency
Use Authorization.
“We are expecting that it will
receive an EUA perhaps within the next few days,” says Galvez. “So with that,
we can already start the negotiations for more or less 5-10 million. Two
million initially by April.” Gamaleya had first applied for Emergency Use in
the Philippines back in January, which was tabled by the country’s Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) for having incomplete requirements. The FDA was
supposed to send a delegation to Russia this week to check on Gamaleya and
assess its willingness to comply with the EUA requirements, only to cancel when
said requirements were finally delivered.
One key requirement required by
the FDA for Emergency Use of Sputnik V was results of a Phase 3 clinical trial.
Russia infamously allowed immediate use of the vaccine in their country without
this. When finally conducted, it was learned that the efficacy rate of Gam-COVID-Vac
was 91.6% in preventing symptoms of COVID-19, and 100% effective in preventing
moderate or serious cases of the disease. At present, only Pfizer, AstraZeneca
and Sinovac have EUAs for their respective vaccines against COVID.
Image from The Straits Times
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