Government talking with US, Russia vaccine makers

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and a representative from the Office of the President were set to meet yesterday with two foreign manufacturers of COVID vaccines as part of efforts to secure vaccines for the country.

This was confirmed yesterday by Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, who said the officials were meeting with Pfizer representatives to discuss “arrangements” for securing vaccines being developed by the New York-based pharmaceutical giant.

“We have a meeting with Pfizer this afternoon, together with the Office of the President,” Vergeire said at a press briefing yesterday.

She said the government was also meeting with representatives of the Russian government and the manufacturer of Sputnik V vaccines yesterday afternoon.

Details of the meetings were not immediately available.

According to Vergeire, the Philippine government has been negotiating with various countries and manufacturers so that the country would not be left out when a vaccine for COVID-19 becomes available.

“All countries, I think, not only the Philippines are having negotiations with different manufacturers.  All countries will do that so that they can provide appropriate and adequate vaccines for their population,” she added.

The official said that having partnership with various suppliers would be “complementary” and may help the Philippine government provide vaccines to a bigger slice of the population.

“For example, Pfizer can offer us this much and the Russian government can offer us (this much).  Hopefully, we will be able to give vaccines to more people eventually,” Vergeire added.

Meanwhile, reports from Paris on Thursday said

French drugmaker Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline said they had started a clinical trial of their protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and aimed to reach the final testing stage by December.

If the results are conclusive, Sanofi and GSK hope to get the vaccine approved in the first half of next year.

The trial is currently in a “Phase 1/2 study” aimed at evaluating the safety, tolerability and immune response of the vaccine in 440 healthy adults across 11 investigational sites in the United States.

The vaccine candidate uses the same recombinant protein-based technology as one of Sanofi’s seasonal influenza vaccines. It will be coupled with an adjuvant, a substance that acts as a booster to the vaccine, made by GSK.

The two companies are scaling up manufacturing in order to be ready to produce up to one billion doses in 2021.

Drugmakers and government agencies worldwide are racing to develop vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, which has claimed more than 861,000 lives and crippled economic activity around the globe.