VSMMC eyed for trial of Chinese vaccine

CEBU, Philippines —  The Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City is among the five hospitals in the Philippines named as sites for the planned clinical trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine from China.

The Department of Health (DOH) said, however, that talks with Chinese manufacturer Sinovac Biotech Ltd. are still ongoing.

“Everything is under discussion for now. We are still negotiating. But for initial information, we already have proposed sites where this clinical trial is going to be implemented,” said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday.

The other hospitals are Philippine General Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, Manila Doctors Hospital, and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

The vaccine candidate produced by Sinovac is among the few in the world to enter Phase 3 clinical trials—or large-scale human trials—the last step before regulatory approvals.

The vaccine, known as CoronaVac, is already being tested in Brazil, the nation with the second-highest number of COVID-19 infections after the United States. Indonesia signed an agreement with Sinovac for 50 million doses of a vaccine that will allow state-owned PT Bio Farma to produce doses locally.

Vergeire said the local partner of Sinovac had submitted an application for late-stage clinical evaluation. She added that a confidentiality disclosure agreement had been filed.

“This is being studied by the vaccines experts panel. We’ll provide information once everything is finalized,” Vergeire said.

She previously said the country is in talks with 16 pharmaceutical companies that are developing coronavirus vaccines.

Government officials are expecting that a vaccine against COVID-19 may be available in the country by the second quarter of 2021.

The country’s confirmed coronavirus cases reached over 217,000 as of Sunday. Of the figure, 157,403 have recovered, while 3,250 have died. — Philstar.com/JMO (FREEMAN)