MANILA – Twenty-four hospitals in the Philippines are participating in the World Health Organization (WHO) Solidarity Trials, an international clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a possible vaccine for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
This was bared in President Rodrigo Duterte's ninth report to Congress on the national government's Covid-19 response efforts. However, the participating hospitals were not listed in the report.
Of the 24 hospitals, 16 are actively recruiting participant-patients. There are currently 157 participant-patients or enrollees in the clinical trials.
The Philippines’ participation in the WHO Solidarity Trial has been approved by the Single Joint Research Ethics Board on April 17 in support of the Covid-19 global response.
For the Avigan Trials, two additional sites have been identified bringing the total to five identified sites as of May 20.
Duterte expressed readiness to conduct clinical trials of Avigan, a Japanese anti-viral drug, for the potential treatment of Covid-19 on April 15.
On Sunday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque announced that Malacañang is looking forward to having the country join clinical trials for a vaccine against Covid-19 by the last quarter of 2020.
He said Duterte expressed optimism over news that some clinical trials for the development of Covid-19 vaccine are showing early promising results.
“We expect involvement in the vaccine clinical trials by the last quarter of 2020 with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) taking a lead role,” Roque said in a statement.
He made the remarks a day after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) approved recommendations for the country to join clinical trials for prospective vaccines.
The IATF-EID approved the Philippines’ collaboration with organizations Adimmune Corporation, Academia Sinica, Chinese Academy of Science-Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, and Sinopharma-Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and Beijing Institute.
The four groups will be provided with the WHO's requirements for Covid-19 vaccine target product profiles; pre-qualification process for WHO approvals; and the FDA’s updated guidelines on clinical trials.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will facilitate the issuance of a permit for the conduct of the clinical trial in the country.
Duterte, in his public address delivered on May 19, sought the immediate purchase of a vaccine for the treatment of Covid-19 once it is available.
Once available, Malacañang said the government would provide free vaccines to the disadvantaged. (PNA)
