PGH to hold 1st phase of real-world study on COVID-19 jabs
MANILA, Philippines — The first phase of the study that will look into the real-world effectiveness of vaccines against COVID-19 will be conducted at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, the project leader said.
Dr. Regina Berba, the head of infectious disease control at the University of the Philippines-PGH, said first phase of the study will start “very soon.”
“We already received ethical approval to perform it at the PGH,” Berba said in a hearing of the House of Representatives’ health committee.
The first phase of the P115-million study will determine the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines on healthcare workers at the PGH.
“The plan is to very carefully monitor these staff and follow them very closely to see whether clinically they develop COVID-19 or not," she said.
"Plus, we’re going to biobank their excess specimens to study the other parts of the immune system other than the antibody,” she added.
The second phase of the study will be community-based. Meanwhile, the third phase is a study involving all regions in the country.
The Department of Science and Technology earlier said researchers will study the vaccines available in the country at the time the project starts.
So far, only the jabs made by Sinovac Biotech, AstraZeneca, Gamaleya Research and Pfizer-BioNTech are being used in the government’s vaccination program.
The vaccine developed by China state-owned Sinooharm was given a special permit but only for use by the Presidential Security Group and by President Rodrigo Duterte.
A separate team of researchers will also study the possibility of pairing the vaccine developed by Sinovac with other brands, and the use of booster shots.
As of May 30, 1.2 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 3.9 million have received one of the two doses.
Solidarity trial
The World Health Organization is expected to identify the jab that will be used in the solidarity trials on candidate COVID-19 vaccines, the project lead of the study in the Philippines said.
“We are developing our standard operating procedures and WHO is about to release in about two weeks’ time the identity of the vaccine that we will use for the trial. Hopefully in another month’s time, about two months from now, a second vaccine will probably be included in the vaccine trial,” Dr. Jodor Lim told House members.
Lim said the clinical trial could extend to outside Metro Manila.
“With the way the vaccine rollout is moving now, we’re thinking of other possibilities of expanding to areas beyond National Capital Region. But at the moment, the preparations had been in NCR,” he said.
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