WHO COVID-19 vaccine trial seen to start in December
MANILA, Philippines Updated 6:24 p.m.) — The clinical trial of candidate vaccines against coronavirus disease led by the World Health Organization will start in December, the Department of Health said Monday.
The vaccine clinical trial was initially scheduled to begin in the country by end-October.
“WHO has announced they would start the trials by December 2020. By November, they will begin in one site and then the different clinical trials in other countries including the Philippines will follow by December of 2020,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.
More details including the trial sites will be announced within the week, she added. Government officials earlier said that areas with high level of COVID-19 transmission would be identified as trial sites.
The country has allocated P89 million for the WHO-led vaccine trial.
Vaccine recipients under the solidarity trial will be individuals aged between 18 and 60 years old. Excluded from the trial are pregnant women and those with comorbidities.
Delay
Department of Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said he was “disappointed” that the start of the WHO-led solidarity trial for COVID-19 vaccines will be delayed in the country.
“I was rather disappointed when I saw the news that the pilot for the WHO trial will be in the Americas and the trial here will have to be moved to December because we were expecting that when it is already announced, then we can already proceed maybe in a few weeks time with WHO trial here,” de la Peña said in a forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.
“But anyway, we also have the independent trials that are already in relatively advanced stage of evaluation,” he added.
The vaccine candidate of Chinese drug maker Sinovac Biotech hurdled the initial stage of screening for clinical trials in the country. It is still undergoing the evaluation of the Single Joint Ethics Research Board.
The Philippines is also assessing the application of Russian firm Gamaleya Research Institute and American company Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen to conduct Phase 3 clinical trials in the country.
The DOST chief also said that Australian biotechnology company Vaxine Pty Ltd has expressed interest in conducting a clinical trial of its candidate vaccine in the country.
According to WHO's latest draft landscape of COVID-19 vaccines, there are 44 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation. Of the figure, 10 are currently in Phase 3 clinical trials.
Treatments
Vergeire also said that interferon had been removed from WHO’s trial on COVID-19 treatments after it was found that the drug “did not reduce the mortality among COVID-19 patients.”
Meanwhile, the use of remdesivir will continue because the United Nations health agency wants to gather more data to support initial findings on the antiviral drug, she added.
The Solidarity Trial published interim results on October 15 found that remdesivir along with hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon had “little or no effect” on overall mortality for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to remdesivir as treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
The Philippines' COVID-19 caseload reached 371,630 Monday, with 7,039 deaths.
Pharma giants Sanofi and GSK said on July 29, 2020, that they have agreed to supply Britain with up to 60 million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. The agreement covers a vaccine candidate developed by France's Sanofi in partnership with the UK's GSK and is subject to a "final contract."
This thread collects some of the major developments in the search for a vaccine to ease the new coronavirus pandemic. (Main photo by AFP/Joel Saget)
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Shaken by the pandemic, the World Health Organization's 194 member states are negotiating an international accord aimed at ensuring countries are better equipped to deal with the next catastrophe, or even prevent it altogether.
The process is still in the early stages, with the aim of reaching an agreement by May 2024.
But critics warn that revisions being made to the preliminary negotiating text are weakening the language -- notably in a key area aimed at preventing the rampant inequity seen in access to vaccines and other medical products during the Covid pandemic.
"I think it is a real step backwards," Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told AFP. — AFP
Africa's first mRNA vaccine hub is ceremonially launched on Thursday to acclaim from the UN's global health chief, who hailed it as a historic shift to help poor countries gain access to life-saving jabs.
The facility was set up in the South African city of Cape Town in 2021 on the back of the success of revolutionary anti-Covid vaccines introduced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
"This precious project... will bring a paradigm shift in addressing the serious problem we faced, the equity problem, during the pandemic, so (that) it's not repeated again," World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells a media briefing to mark the inauguration. — AFP
China has approved its first locally developed messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against Covid-19, its manufacturer said Wednesday, months after the relaxation of strict Covid-zero regulations sparked a surge in cases.
The vaccine, developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd, has been approved for "emergency use" by Beijing's health regulator, the company said in a statement.
It showed high efficacy in a trial in which it was used as a booster shot for people who have been given other types of vaccines, the company added, without offering further details. — AFP
COVID-19 vaccine maker Novavax raises doubts about its ability to continue its business, announcing plans to cut spending after struggles in rolling out its coronavirus jab.
Shares of Novavax plummeted 25 percent in extended trading, after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates.
While the firm should have enough money to fund operations, the situation is "subject to significant uncertainty," it says in a statement. — AFP
The protection against Covid-19 from being previously infected lasts at least as long as that offered by vaccination, one of the largest studies conducted on the subject says.
Ten months after getting Covid, people still had an 88% lower risk of reinfection, hospitalisation and death, according to the study published in the Lancet journal.
That makes this natural immunity "at least as durable, if not more so" than two doses of Pfizer or Moderna's vaccines, the study says.
The authors nevertheless emphasized that their findings should not discourage vaccination, which remains the safest way to get immunity. — AFP
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