BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and GERARD NAVAL
PRESIDENT Duterte will still receive a second dose of the vaccine made by Sinopharm even after he asked the China to “withdraw” the 1,000 doses it donated to the Philippines, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said yesterday.
“Hindi ibabalik iyong pang-second dose ni Presidente para matapos niya ang second dose niya (The second dose will not be returned so the President could complete his second dose),” Roque said in a briefing.
He also said the Sinopharm vaccine could be used in the country if it obtains an emergency use authority (EUA) from the Food and Drug Authority.
Duterte received his first jab of the Sinopharm vaccine on May 3. Malacañang said it is part of the 1,000 doses donated by China to the Philippines government.
The Chinese state-owned firm Sinopharm has not applied for EUA but the FDA issued a compassionate special permit (CSP) to the Presidential Security Group Hospital in February for the use of the Sinopharm vaccine on its members. The permit covers 10,000 doses for the PSG.
The President, during his Talk to the People address on Wednesday night, said the vaccine given to him was covered by a compassionate permit issued by the FDA to the PSG Hospital. He reiterated he used Sinopharm on the advice of his physician.
He said that while the use of the vaccine is legal because of the compassionate permit, he acknowledged concerns of some people that there might be some “danger” as the vaccine did not pass evaluation by FDA experts and it does not have an EUA.
“Itong stock natin, ipasauli ko para walang gulo. This is to avoid… baka mamaya may magamit pa… huwag kayong sumunod sa akin kay delikado na walang studies baka hindi, hindi maganda sa katawan. Hayaan mo na lang akong magsolo. Huwag kayong gumamit sabi ng mga doktor (I will have our stock returned so there will be no more fuss… so that no one else will use it… do not do what I did because it might be dangerous because there are no studies, it might not be good for the body. Let me be the only one. Do not use it according to the doctors),” he said.
The President said that before he started his meeting with his Cabinet, he talked with a Chinese official to take “withdraw” the Sinopharm vaccines and send instead vaccines made by Sinovac Biotech, a private Chinese firm.
Majority of the 4.04 million doses of vaccines in the Philippines came from Sinovac.
ALTERNATIVE
Dr. Rontgene Solante, a member of the government’s Vaccine Expert Panel, said Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine would be an acceptable alternative second dose for Duterte.
“If Sinopharm is no longer available, it can be replaced by Sinovac, which has been issued an emergency use authorization already,” he said.
“It is possible because they have the same platform, which is an inactivated virus,” he added.
FDA Director General Eric Domingo said the Department of Health is formulating guidelines for mixing vaccines from different manufacturers, “in case the second dose cannot be given identical to the first dose.”
“There have been ongoing meetings at the DOH on such guidelines because there are really such instances, like when one has severe allergy after getting the first dose,” he added.
Solante said it was a mistake to use Sinopharm when there are seven other vaccines issued EUAs in the Philippines.
“We stand by our policy that as long it has no EUA, we shouldn’t use it,” he said.
In the case of Sinopharm, he said, the VEP never received any document that will allow the panel to assess its safety and efficacy.
“Had they submitted any, we could have reviewed them and give our recommendations,” Solante said.
Meanwhile, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the country is expected to receive today 1.5 million of the 2 million Sinovac doses bought by government from China and scheduled for delivery this month. The government bought a total of 25 million doses of Sinovac vaccines.
Galvez said Sinopharm is not part of the country’s vaccine portfolio because it is more expensive than the other brands.
He also said the country expects at least 7 million doses of vaccines to arrive this month after the COVAX Facility committed to deliver the AstraZeneca Plc and Pfizer BioNTech vaccines this month. — With Gerard Naval
