Sinovac to get EUA in PH before Feb 20 — Galvez

Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Head Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., physically attends Tuesday’s hybrid hearing of the Committee on Finance Subcommittee C September 22, 2020, to present the proposed budget of the agency. Senate PRIB photo / Henz Austria

MANILA, Philippines — The government expects that an emergency use authorization (EUA) will be issued to China’s Sinovac Biotech by February 20, for its Covid-19 vaccine in the country, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Wednesday.

The Philippines has already secured 25 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from Sinovac even as the firm has yet to apply for EUA before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Securing an EUA will allow a new vaccine to be administered in the country.

“Iyong EUA po ng Sinovac, maa-approve po before February 20,” Galvez said in a televised Laging Handa Public Briefing.

“Maganda ang arrangement natin kasi may darating kada buwan. [Fifty thousand] 50,000 doses of Sinovac sa February, tapos 950,000 sa March, tapos one million, two million, 3 million kada buwan,” he added.

(Our arrangement is good because every month [vaccine supplies] will arrive. Fifty thousand doses of Sinovac [vaccines] in February, and then 950,000 in March, then one million, two million, three million every month.)

The former military chief said Sinovac is currently consolidating data from the results of late-stage trials of its CoronaVac vaccine in Brazil and Turkey. He also said the Chinese firm is awaiting approval for general use and authority to export from the Chinese government.

“More or less, mga first week of February ay mabibigyan na po ng China ang Sinovac ng emergency use authorization for general use at [authority to] export,” he said.

(More or less first week of February, China’s Sinovac will get an emergency use authority for general use and [authority to] export.)

So far, three pharmaceutical companies have applied for EUA in the country for their respective coronavirus vaccines, namely, US drugmaker Pfizer, British firm AstraZeneca and Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute.

JPV