Vax makers urged to register in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion is urging COVID-19 vaccine makers to apply for a certificate of product registration (CPR) in the country in preparation for lifting of the state of public health emergency.

During the Laging Handa public briefing yesterday, Concepcion said it is ideal for vaccine manufacturers to apply for the CPR while the state of public health emergency has yet to be lifted.

“What we want to do is if eventually the public will buy their own vaccines,” he said, noting that COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out have been seen to be safe.

A CPR issued by the Food and Drug Administration authorizes the marketing and sale of a product following an evaluation of its safety and quality.

At present, COVID-19 vaccines being given in the country are not covered by a CPR but by an emergency use authorization (EUA) under a public health emergency.

Concepcion said making the vaccines available for sale in drugstores would help ease the burden of the government, as the responsibility would be shared by the private sector and citizens who can afford it.

“We can see that the government cannot afford to buy vaccines and drugs for the entire country anymore,” he said.

With the health situation improving, he said it is necessary to make plans on how to move away from the pandemic mindset.

The current system, he said, couldn’t continue indefinitely as this presents the possibility of raising alert levels that would limit mobility and affect the economy.

‘Endemnicity’

Despite the emergence of new subvariants of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, COVID-19 still appears to be heading toward “endemnicity,” Department of Health (DOH) Technical Advisory Group member Edsel Salvaña said yesterday.

According to Salvaña, the virus seems to be on its way to becoming endemic although there are “concerns that COVID has surprised us many times.”

“We are cautious. We are cautiously optimistic that we are headed towards endemnicity,” he noted at a Laging Handa public briefing.

Salvaña added while the subvariants of Omicron are “more transmissible,” there is no evidence that they cause “more severe diseases.”

“In fact, almost all of the B.A. (sublineages) are mild especially among those vaccinated and in some days, there is no death. This tells us that we are really headed towards endemnicity,” he said.

Salvaña added that while the DOH had first declared local transmission of Omicron subvariant B.A.2.12.1 in some parts of the country, this “seems to have fizzled out.” – Sheila Crisostomo