IATF OKs Sinovac as PH’s potential collaborator for COVID-19 vaccine dev’t

MANILA, Philippines — The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has approved the inclusion of Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech Ltd. as potential collaborators of the country on COVID-19 vaccine development and clinical trials.

“In addition to existing potential collaborators of the Philippines on COVID-19 vaccine development and clinical trials, the recommendation of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to include Sinovac Biotech Ltd. among those for consideration is hereby approved,” reads IATF’s Resolution No. 44, which was made public on Tuesday.

Sinovac Biotech is among the firms that have been authorized to conduct clinical trials in China.

Other collaborating organizations of the country in developing vaccines against COVID-19 are Taiwan-based Adimmune Corp. and Academia Sinica, the Chinese Academy of Science-Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, and SinoPharm-Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and Beijing Institute.

READ: Gov’t OKs participation in clinical trials for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines

A working group led by DOST will work with the Department of Health (DOH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), World Health Organization (WHO), and Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) on the clinical trials’ progress.

President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly expressed support to the development of a vaccine against COVID-19, even bringing it up during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.

He also offered a P10 million reward to any Filipino who will discover a vaccine against the disease, which was caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Duterte likewise repeatedly said he would lift all quarantine measures in place once a vaccine is developed.

KGA