Duterte thanks Russia for offer to supply COVID-19 vaccine
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte thanked Russia late Monday night for an offer to supply a COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available.
Duterte has repeatedly said that Filipinos will need to cooperate with authorities enforcing quarantine protocols and bear the effects of the pandemic until a vaccine is developed.
He said he was very happy that Russia would supply the vaccine "and they are not talking about any payment."
"Ito tingin ko kay President (Vladimir) Putin, tulong niya sa atin ng libre (I view this as President Putin's help to us for free)," he said.
He said he and Putin would still discuss the details of the clinical trial for the vaccine.
"Well, mag-injection muna tayo ng iilan tapos tingnan natin ang resulta (We will inject it in some people and we will look at the results)," he said.
The president also tasked Health Secretary Francisco Duque III "to look for the best guy to be given the [task of handling] the transfer of tehcnology of the vaccine."
Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev is quoted in news reports as saying over the weekend that Russia has developed a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 and is only waiting for the Philippines to accept its offer.
He also said that the applications have been filed at the Philippine Food and Drug Administration.
"It means that we are ready to combine our efforts, we are ready to make necessary investments together with our Philippine partners and we are ready to share our technologies simply because we want to build a robust partnership between our two nations," he also reportedly said.
"May tiwala ako na di sila nagkamali... Kung puwede sa akin, puwede sa lahat. Kung hindi puwede sa akin, 'yan ang problema," Duterte said Monday, claiming he would be the first to test the vaccine.
(I trust that they have not made a mistake. If it works on me, it will work on all. If it doesn't work on me, then that is a problem)
The president also said that the vaccine will be "distributed worldwide by September or October."
According to guidelines on clinical trials set by the US Food and Drug Administration, Phase 1 of clinical trials usually involve 20 to 100 volunteers and last for "several months."
Phase 2 will involve "up to several hundred people with the disease [or] condition" and can last between several months to two years.
Phase 3 clinical trials involve "300 to 3,000 volunteers who have the disease or condition" and can take from a year to four years.
Phase 4 trials, which test for safety and efficacy, involve "several thousand volunteers."
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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