Solon urges clinical trials for Pfizer, Moderna as booster shots

MANILA, Phiilp[ines — Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera urged local scientists to conduct clinical trials to determine if the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna can effectively be used as booster shots for those who got jabs from Sinovac BioTech and AstraZeneca.

Herrera noted that studies are being done in the United States, United Kingdom, India and Spain on the use of different vaccine brands as booster shots months after the initial inoculation.

“Those scientists would not spend their time, effort and expertise on these pursuits unless they had sufficient basis,” she said in a statement. “It would be wise for some of our Filipino scientists to do the same here in the Philippines.”

The lawmaker made the remarks as the country anticipated the arrival of more mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 from Pfizer and Moderna in the coming months.

Earlier, the Philippines received its first 193,050 doses of Pfizer jabs through the COVAX facility. The country is poised to buy 40 million Pfizer vaccines.

By June, an initial shipment of around 200,000 Moderna vaccines will be delivered to the country. This is part of the 20 million doses purchased from Moderna, which are expected to arrive by the end of 2021.

The government has entered the third month of vaccination, with Filipinos receiving shots made by Sinovac, AstraZeneca and the recently delivered Sputnik V jab made by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute.

Pfizer and Moderna are both developing a third dose or booster shot to improve immunity against COVID-19, and that clinical trials for booster shots are underway.

Herrera noted that some scientists believe that combining different vaccine technologies may help stimulate immune systems to fight better against COVID-19.

“The studies have good potential and are promising, because there is growing support in the vaccine science community for the need for booster shots. This is because of the emergence of new variants and the need to prolong the effectiveness of the earlier vaccine doses,” she said.