EO for emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines in PH ‘approved in principle’

FILE PHOTO: A handout photo provided by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) shows samples of a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, in Moscow, Russia August 6, 2020. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF)/Handout via REUTERS/Files

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has approved “in principle” the call of health authorities to allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant emergency use authorization (EUA) to coronavirus vaccines that will enter the country.

“Approved in principle but wala pa po iyong EO (executive order),” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a televised Palace press briefing Thursday.

In a meeting in Malacañang on Tuesday night, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III asked the President to grant FDA with EUA, saying that it would also “cut the red tape.”

“We are respectfully requesting that you consider the issuance of an executive order for FDA to grant an Emergency Use Authorization for the various vaccines that will — will enter the country and for which applications are to be filed,” Duque told Duterte.

Duque said that the EO will help cut the processing time for approval of COVID-19 vaccines from six months to just about 21 days.

The COVID-19 vaccines of China’s Sinovac Biotech and Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute have already secured EUA from their respective governments. The United States is also planning to allow the emergency use of Pfizer’s vaccine.

But FDA chief Eric Domingo said the vaccines need to secure EUA from the Philippine regulator as well for them to be used in the country.

EDV