Leaks, extra doses found in COVID-19 vaccine vials

MANILA, Philippines — Leaks were found in a small number of vials of the China-donated COVID vaccine CoronaVac, rendering the drug unfit for human use.

But for the AstraZeneca vaccine, some vials were found to contain an extra dose, if not less than the standard 10 doses per vial, Carlito Galvez Jr., head of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said in an online forum on Wednesday.

Galvez said wastage and spoilage of vaccines were most likely due to mishandling.

He did not say exactly where in the supply chain the vaccines were mishandled, but said the lapses affected only a few vials.

Galvez said that as of Wednesday, all 1.125 million doses of vaccines the Philippines had received from China and from the global vaccine pool COVAX had been delivered to hospitals and vaccination hubs from Batanes in the north to Basilan in the south.

He said 240,297 health workers, the government’s top priority in its vaccination drive that began on March 1, had received their first dose.

Manufacturing flaws

In a phone interview, Dr. Clarissa Modes of the Philippine National Police Health Service said four of the 1,200 vials of the Sinovac Biotech vaccine CoronaVac allocated to the PNP’s health workers on March 14 went to waste.

Two vials, she said, had leaks on the side of the bottle, while the contents of the other two had crystalized.

“We couldn’t [use] those. There were crystal formations [in the vials],” Modes said.

She called the incident “isolated,” saying the defects were likely the result of manufacturing flaws.

The interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group, composed of medical experts, was discussing a proposal by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to use all AstraZeneca vaccines as first dose as the government expected some 2.3 million doses of the same brand and from the same source to arrive this month.

Galvez said the government would most likely complete the inoculation of the 1.7 million health workers by mid-April and begin the vaccination of about 4 million to 9 million elderly people by May.

Galvez said that by April, the vaccination pace would pick up to 1 million people a week. The government aims to vaccinate 2 million people a week by May and increase this to 3 million to 5 million a week until the drive covers 70 million people toward the end of the year.

Philippine vaccines

During his visit to India over the weekend, Galvez said India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, offered to help the Philippines develop and manufacture its own vaccines.

Galvez said that once, the Philippines manufactured vaccines for tropical diseases and even donated some to China in 1938.

He, however, could not name the Philippine-made vaccines.