Philippines to probe bribery claims vs Chinese drugmaker Sinovac
MANILA, Philippines — Vaccine screening authorities in the Philippines will look into reports alleging that Chinese drugmaker Sinovac Biotech has a record of bribing drug regulators, the Department of Health said Wednesday.
The Washington Post reported that court records showed that Sinovac’s CEO bribed China’s drug regulator to expedite approvals for their SARS vaccine in 2003 and swine flu vaccine in 2009. The firm acknowledged the bribery case involving its CEO but said he cooperated with prosecutors and was not charged.
The report, however, noted there is no evidence that any of Sinovac’s products involved in bribery cases were faulty. But experts interviewed by the Washington Post said the company’s history of bribery “casts a long shadow of doubt” over its vaccine claims.
In a briefing, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the department is aware of the report. He said the country’s vaccine screening authorities will validate and investigate the allegation.
“This will form part of the work of the vaccine experts panel. They will assess the veracity first and foremost of such a report to know if there is some truth to it,” Duque said.
“If true, then it’s up to the vaccine experts panel to include this in their final report and also the Food and Drug Administration. There is also the Single Joint Ethics Review Board to ensure we won’t fall victims to these questionable transactions if it really happened,” he added.
“CoronaVac”—the coronavirus vaccine developed by Sinovac—may be the first vaccine to be rolled out in the country, inoculation czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said in an interview on ANC’s “Headstart.”
The Chinese pharmaceutical firm also applied to conduct a large-scale clinical trial in the Philippines to assess the efficacy of its product.
The Philippine government is eyeing to vaccinate around 24.7 million Filipinos in the first part of the immunization program against COVID-19.
Some 1.76 million health workers would be first in the list of priority beneficiaries for COVID-19 vaccination. Medical frontliners would be followed senior citizens, indigent Filipinos and uniformed personnel.
Sinovac has sent Indonesia—the country with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in Southeast Asia—1.2 million doses of its vaccine. Another 1.8 million doses are expected to be delivered in January.
Brazil's Sao Paulo state said it would begin its vaccination program using Sinovac's vaccine next month.
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)
As negotiations towards a new pandemic treaty pick up pace, observers warn of watered-down efforts to ensure equitable access to the medical products needed to battle future Covid-like threats.
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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