DOST allots P89M for vaccine trial

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has allotted P89.1 million for the World Health Organization (WHO) Solidarity Trials for Vaccines, expected to start in the third week of October, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Wednesday.

The funds would cover the operational expenses for the trials that would last for 18 months, Vergeire said.

In talks for supplies

The WHO will provide the country with the vaccines, she said.

At least 34 candidate vaccines for COVID-19 are under study for inclusion in the trials.

Seven of the candidates, now in Phase 3 trials, are made by pharmaceutical companies that the Philippine government is in talks for supplies.

The companies are Oxford Astrazeneca, Gamaleya Research Institute, Sinovac, Sinopharm Wuhan, Sinopharm Beijing, BioNtech/Fosun Pharma/Pfizer and Moderna/NIAID.

Vergeire said the DOH was waiting for the WHO’s third shipment of remdesivir, an antiviral under study as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

She said the country was expecting a thousand vials of remdesivir. —JOVIC YEE