Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he is willing to settle for the new Russian COVID-19 vaccine, adding that he will be among the first to be “vaccinated in public.”
The Philippines is the most affected country in Southeast Asia. This guy wears an improvised mask made with a polystyrene cup and a face made from a plastic bottle. Picture: Ezra Acayan / Getty Images
The Philippines will begin large-scale human testing of the Russian coronavirus vaccine in October, but President Rodrigo Duterte will get the inoculation until regulators ensure his safety, his spokesman said Thursday.
Duterte had presented himself as a guinea pig for the first time, expressing “enormous confidence” in the vaccine, despite developing skepticism about its effectiveness.
But his spokesman Harry Roque said the president got the vaccine no earlier than May 1, weeks after the completion of the Russian-funded Phase 3 clinical trial in the archipelago in March.
The country’s Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the coronavirus vaccine, developed through the Gamaleya Research Institute and the Russian Ministry of Defense, in April.
“May 1 is the time when the PSG (presidential security group) can allow it, once all the required tests have been completed,” Roque told the press.
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will take the vaccine against the Russian virus once it has been proven safe. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russia is the first to expand a vaccine sparked skepticism this week. Picture: SPUTNIK / AFP Source: AFP
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Moscow claims to have developed the world’s first vaccine that provides “sustainable immunity” against coronavirus and is in the final stages of involving 2,000 people.
Roque said Philippine experts would review the effects of Russia’s Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials next month before the Southeast Asian country begins its Phase 3 testing.
“We’ll do it with Russia,” Roque said.
Philippine officials from the Department of Science and Technology met with Gamaleya on Wednesday to discuss testing protocols for the vaccine, named “Sputnik V” in honor of the pioneering Soviet satellite of the 1950s.
The Philippines, which is suffering from the involvement of the virus, has accepted that Russia offers to participate in the production of the vaccine.
Anna Lisa Ong-Lim, a professor of infectious diseases at the Medical University of the Philippines, said the government’s timetable for having a vaccine before May is “very optimistic.”
The country is also expected to begin clinical trials with the Japanese antiviral drug Avigan on August 17 to treat patients with coronavirus.
The Philippines recorded the number of infections shown in Southeast Asia with more than 147,500 cases and more than 2,400 deaths.
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The Russian vaccine is being developed through the Gamaleya Research Institute in Epidemiology and Microbiology. Photo: Russian Direct Investment Fund Source: AFP
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News of vaccine progression in Russia has been received with skepticism by many, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is interested in reviewing clinical trials.
WHO reports that 28 of the more than 150 prospective vaccines are being actively tested in humans lately, six of which have reached Phase 3, the highest level at which candidate drugs are tested in giant teams of people.
“WHO is in contact with Russian scientists and government and looks forward to reviewing the main points of the trials,” the UN fitness firm said in a statement.
“WHO welcomes all advances in the progression of the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Meanwhile, the Brazilian state of Paraná signed an agreement to verify and produce the vaccine, but officials must first ensure that it is effective.
The vaccine obtains Brazilian regulatory approval and complete Phase 3 clinical trials, or large-scale human trials, before being produced in Brazil, southern state officials said.
Production, if continued, would not begin until 2021, said Jorge Callado, director of the Paraná Institute of Technology, who signed the agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).
“This is a very objective Memorandum of Understanding on generational exchange. It imposes no obligations, just us to paint together,” he said at a virtual press conference.
Brazil has a popular testing floor for COVID-19 vaccines, as the new coronavirus is still spreading rapidly.
The country has the number of infections and deaths at the time of the pandemic, after the United States: more than 3.1 million and 104,000, respectively.
Two experimental vaccines are lately in Phase 3 in Brazil, one developed through the University of Oxford with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and that of the Chinese laboratory Sinovac Biotech.