MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte told the United States on Saturday that he would push through with his plan to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) unless it was able to provide the Philippines with vaccines against the new coronavirus.
Duterte noted that the VFA was on the brink of termination, and US troops would have to leave the Philippines unless he allows them to stay.
Duterte ordered the termination of the VFA earlier this year, but suspended the six-month countdown before the military agreement lapses.
The deal allows American soldiers to hold military exercises in the Philippines.
“If they are not able to deliver a minimum of 20 million vaccines, they better get out. No vaccine, no stay here,” Duterte said during a meeting in Malacañang, drawing applause from his officials.
If the United States wants to provide vaccines to the country, it should just do so without making “so much noise,” he said.
He noted that the United States was scrambling to produce vaccines for its people, with American pharmaceutical company Pfizer “up to its neck producing it for everybody.” And yet, he said, it was promising to provide many countries with vaccines against the virus that causes COVID-19.
May be signed by January
He made the statements as he once more addressed controversies about the county’s vaccine acquisition plan. Carlito Galvez Jr., who is in charge of the national vaccination program, said the deals to acquire vaccines from Pfizer and Novovax may be signed by January.
Duterte told Galvez that he should not worry too much about the cost of the vaccines. He told the former military chief of staff to purchase what is available because “it’s an emergency.”
The President also asked Dr. Eric Domingo, director general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), not to prolong the approval of vaccines that already passed through the government regulators of the United States and the United Kingdom.
Domingo said that the FDA only had a few requirements for vaccine manufacturers that had secured the approval of the regulatory agencies in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The FDA’s concern is the stability of the vaccines in the Philippine climate and their effectivity for Asians, Domingo said. The FDA also wanted to ensure that the vaccine registered in other countries would be the same to be used in the Philippines, he added.
Soldiers already vaccinated
Domingo said the FDA would be stricter about approving vaccines from China because these have not yet secured approval from counterparts in other countries. Duterte disclosed that many in the Philippines had already been given the vaccine from Sinopharm, a Chinese pharmaceutical company.
“I have to be frank, I have to tell the truth. I will not foist a lie. Many [soldiers] have been vaccinated,” he said, adding that it was “for the select few, not all soldiers, because it is not yet policy.”
Emergency use
In response, Domingo noted that authorities have not caught anyone with unathorized vaccines in raids in Makati and Binondo.
The Sinopharm vaccine has been approved for emergency use in China and in several countries including the United Arab Emirates, where it is undergoing clinical trial.
The President said even members of the New People’s Army would be eligible to get the vaccine from the government.
The vaccine would be available to all Filipinos, he said. INQ
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DOH: 50% vaccine efficacy is OK
CHINA-MADE A nurse holds a syringe before administering an injection to a volunteer in the trial stage of the COVID-19 vaccine Coronavac at Emilio Ribas Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in this photo taken on Dec. 11. —REUTERS
MANILA, Philippines — Despite growing opposition from lawmakers to a Chinese-made vaccine against COVID-19 that was at least 50-percent effective, the Department of Health (DOH) assured Filipinos that the CoronaVac made by China’s Sinovac Biotech conformed with standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that before any vaccine was approved for use in the country, it must pass scrutiny by the vaccine expert panel—the scientific advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—and an assessment council that would examine its risk-benefit and the cost-effectiveness of the procurement.
“With all these layers, we can be assured that what we will buy would be appropriate and that the government will be efficient when it procures these,” Vergeire said at the Laging Handa briefing on Saturday.
Senators earlier said buying vaccines with a 50-percent efficacy rate would be a waste of money and would not build public trust in vaccines.
The Philippine government is eyeing to secure up to 25 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine.
Two vaccines made by two American drugmakers already approved for use in the United States and the United Kingdom, have higher rates of efficacy—95 percent (by Pfizer/BioNTech) and 94 percent (by Moderna).
Int’l standards
The private sector, with government approval, has secured 2.6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which its British manufacturer said early this month was 70-percent effective in pivotal trials and could be up to 90-percent effective. It is expected to be released by the second quarter of 2021.
Responding to the concerns, Vergeire said a 50-percent efficacy rate was within international standards.
“Our countrymen need to understand that the [WHO] set the minimum efficacy rate for vaccines during an outbreak situation and that minimum would be 50 percent, and the desired efficacy would be 70 percent,” she said.
The US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency also set a minimum efficacy rate of 50 percent for the COVID-19 vaccine, she said.
In separate statements, Agusan del Norte Rep. Lawrence Fortun and Ako Bicol Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. stressed the need for a vaccine with the highest potency, the least side effects, and the most reasonably priced for the country’s immunization program.
Garbin urged the FDA to act fast and register and certify the use of vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, citing their approval by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Singapore, Japan, and other countries.
He said the FDA’s approval would also allow the private sector, local government, and even Churches to procure them “for the people they wish to vaccinate.”
He insisted, however, that the government only use vaccines that had passed the third stage of clinical trials, as these would have the data that the FDA needed in deciding which vaccine to approve.
“Billions of pesos in public funds will be wasted if the selected vaccine will not address our needs, and obviously, our lives and health are at stake here,” Garbin said.
Chinese ‘pressure’
Fortun agreed, saying it would be “nonsense” if Filipinos or the government would insist on using CoronaVac given its bare minimum efficacy rate.
“Our government must not give in to any overture, pressure, or campaigning by the Chinese government, the Chinese embassy, or any of their proxies. Our government should abandon any prior verbal agreement they may have had. They should politely decline the offers about Sinovac,” Fortun said.
“No sane Filipino should allow himself or herself to be injected with a vaccine like Sinovac, which barely hurdled the minimum standards. Whatever political game was afoot involving Sinovac, it is now game over, thanks to the DOST (Department of Science and Technology) scientists who decided to reveal the truth about Sinovac,” Fortun added.
Garbin said the government should select vaccines that should “match the target segments of the population.”
He said that regardless of cost, the “most potent” of all the vaccines should be given to the health-care front-liners and those with the least side effects and contraindications be given to senior citizens.
The adult workforce, he added, can be inoculated with vaccines that are “both reasonably priced and with high efficacy during the third phase clinical trials.”
According to interim data from a late-stage trial in Turkey, the Chinese vaccine is 91.25-percent effective, a potentially much better result than what had been reported from a separate trial of the CoronaVac in Brazil.
Researchers in Brazil, which is also running a final phase 3 trial of the vaccine, said on Wednesday that the shot was more than 50-percent effective, but withheld full results at the company’s request, raising questions about transparency.
Sinovac has signed supply deals with Turkey, Indonesia, Brazil, Chile and Singapore, and is negotiating with the Philippines and Malaysia.
Vergeire noted the limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines and that not all countries would be able to get an equal share of what’s available.
“So we are trying to negotiate and we are trying to scoop what is acceptable,” she said.
“Whatever funds we will use for the vaccines would help us with our objective of protecting the population. So with all of these negotiations, our vaccine czar is ensuring that the vaccines we will get will be in accordance with international standards,” Vergeire said. —WITH REPORTS FROM REUTERS INQ
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