Sinovac safety, efficacy, price still need clarifying

Suspicions linger over Sinovac’s safety, efficacy and price. It’s the only COVID-19 vaccine Malacañang is ordering for the first half of 2021. No room for pickiness, spokesman Harry Roque said. But if un-assured, half of Filipinos will refuse inoculation, based on surveys. The Chinese firm has a history of bribing Beijing officials for product approval.

Overprice of as much as P16.8 billion was attempted, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said. Though silent on the culprit, he deduced the kickback from Sinovac’s published rates. On Senate record is P3,629.50 for two doses, or P1,814.75 per dose. Yet Thailand bought at only P240 apiece; Indonesia at P683. Malacañang has indented 25 million doses.

Roque’s claim didn’t wash that “P3,629.50 was fake news.”  The Dept. of Health no less had given that figure to congressional budget hearings last November. Vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez swore he negotiated an amount close to Indonesia’s. But he wouldn’t say exactly how much, due to confidentiality clauses with Sinovac.

State lawyers told senators that secrecy protects proprietary information. Minority Leader Franklin Drilon retorted with a Supreme Court ruling (Chavez v PEA-Amari). Constitutional transparency includes even ongoing negotiations. At issue is the use of taxpayer money, not Sinovac’s trade secrets.

Dispelling any sleaze, President Duterte said Galvez has no role in payment. Finance Sec. Carlos Dominguez will screen the deal; so will multilateral lenders. Galvez was dispatched to Senate President Tito Sotto. Satisfied in a closed-door briefing, Sotto praised Galvez’s integrity, but warned him against being used by “unscrupulous others.”

Sinovac’s efficacy varies as widely as its price in country after country. Ninety-one percent was announced in Turkey; 65 in Indonesia. But trials were only on few volunteers and few COVID-19 cases. And “data to back those numbers up are scarce,” The Economist magazine reported.

A larger trial in Brazil notched confusing 78 and 50.42 percent, depending on the recording method. The 10,000 participating health care workers were tested after reporting only one symptom, instead of three as required in other trials. So if “very mild” cases were ignored, and only “mild,” “severe” and “fatal” considered, then the efficacy hits 78 percent. “This sort of after-the-fact tinkering is frowned on by statisticians,” The Economist said. Brazil and Indonesia nevertheless will buy and domestically produce Sinovac’s serum.

Sinovac has yet to submit Phase-3 trial data to the Philippines. The first- and second-stage info it gave so far are scanty for emergency use authorization, Food and Drug Administrator Eric Domingo said. Yet Sinovac procurers justified the 50.42 percent as acceptable by World Health Organization standards. The WHO had set 50 percent as minimum but 70 as preferred in April, well before vaccine tests began.

At a Senate inquiry Lacson presented to invited experts the efficacy computation formula of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Factoring in the risk ratio gave Sinovac only 49.58 percent, a flunker by WHO standards. “Dr. Domingo of FDA and Dr. Lulu Bravo of Philippine Foundation for Vaccination agreed with the formula, but did not comment on the figures,” Lacson told The STAR.

AstraZeneca of Britain rated 70 percent in final trials in December. Donor-companies were able to buy for Malacañang at only P240 per vial. Pfizer and Moderna of America tested 95 and 94 percent, respectively. Due to supply and production woes those won’t be available till July.

China promotes its vaccines as for the “global good”. Yet it is notorious for spotty disclosure of pharmaceutical data. It has injected a million of its citizens in November despite incomplete trials. Insecure perhaps, Beijing is badmouthing those developed in the UK and US and mass-produced in India.

Other questions remain. One concerns vaccination certificates. Will those be required for work, school, marketing, commuting, travel, dining out and worship? Another is on timeliness and free choice. Why not let private companies, labor unions, NGOs and local governments buy their preferred jabs, from the 35 WHO-accredited states with stringent regulatory authorities?

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Good news for now. The Philippine Fleet can stay in its main port in Sangley Point. The Cavite provincial capitol has cancelled a China state firm’s construction of an international airport on the naval base.

The $10-billion contract with China Communications and Construction Company was revoked. Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla told Reuters of four documentation deficiencies: “We saw it as a sign they were not fully committed to the project.” Talks for a new constructor will be pursued, he posted on Facebook.

Ground works would have evicted the fleet, shipyard support services, the air squadron and special warfare units. No relocation was offered. The seat of government 10 kilometers away in Manila would be left defenseless. Hundreds of servicemen’s quarters and children’s schools will be flattened. Reclamation will dislocate Manila Bayside communities.

CCCC led the dredging and concreting of seven Philippine reefs into Chinese island-fortresses starting 2013. It has four ongoing works with other local governments. The World Bank had blacklisted its subsidiaries from Philippine road and bridgeworks for several years due to shady practices.

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