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.
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“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.