Sa huling quarter ng taon o pagitan ng Oktubre hanggang Disyembre magsisimula ang clinical trials ng COVID-19 vaccine dito sa Pilipinas, ayon sa Department of Science and Technology (DOST)
Walang binanggit ang ahensya kung alin sa mga dinevelop na bakuna ng iba’t-ibang bansa ang gagawan ng phase 3 clinical trial dito, pero asahan umano na baka sa 2nd quarter ng 2021 ay maging available na rin ang epektibo at ligtas na bakuna sa mas maraming tao.
“If we are talking about the availability en masse, we believe this is going to be happening in the second quarter of next year. Pero if we are talking about the clinical trials it will start in the fourth quarter of this year,” DOST Usec. Rowena Guevara sa isang media conference.
Sa ngayon ang pagsali sa clinical trials lang muna raw ang maaaring gawin ng estado bilang hakbang laban sa COVID-19. Masyado raw kasing magastos ang pag-develop ng bakuna at nangangailangan ng ilang specific requirements ayon kay Dr. Jaime Montoya, executive director ng DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.
“Philippines is already classified as a low-middle income country, we do admit that we still have a lot of things to do and to upgrade and enhance in order to attain this degree of ability to manufacture vaccines.”
“R&D (research and development) for vaccine development would require significant scientific talent development involving several disciplines, planning, infrastructure, capacity building for the state of the art laboratory facilities and training of sufficient human resources.”
Ayon kay Usec. Guevara, nakatanggap na nang budget ang research and development ng isinusulong na Virology Science and Technology Institute at marami na ring tumutulong para makapagtayo ang bansa ng nasabing pasilidad.
“This (Institute) will not just deal with human viruses but also viruses against animals and plants. The “why not” is because we are just starting, but we are very fortunate that we have started to develop human resource since 2007, so we have the MS’ and PhDs in all the right fields, and we have the MD PhDs who will help us undertake and develop vaccines for the future pandemics.”
Binigyang diin ng DOST officials na kailangang dumaan sa regulatory process ang isang bakuna bago gamitin sa trials. Kung matutuloy kasi ang phase 3 clinical trial ng COVID-19 vaccine dito sa bansa, higit 1,000 tao ang kailangang sumali.
Sa ngayon patuloy daw ang koordinasyon ng sub-technical working group on vaccines sa limang manufacturer mula China, Amerika, at United Kingdom na may mga bakuna nang nasa ikatlong phase ng clinical trial. Aprubado ito ng Inter-Agency Task Force at inaasahang makapagsasagawa rin ng trials ang mga ito dito sa bansa.
Bukod sa mga bakunang ito, may committment na rin nang pagsali sa hiwalay na Solidarity trial ng World Health Organization ang estado at registration sa COVAX Facility para sa supply ng bakuna. Sinisikap namang makuha ng Sub-TWG ang buong dokumento ng Sputnik V mula Russia para mapag-aralan at bago ito idaan sa regulatory process para rin sa clinical trials.
“Mayroon na kaming nakuhang kaunting information, yung synopsis lang nila, but we require the complete technical dossier to be submitted to FDA. So until that happens hindi namin mafu-fully evaluate yung kanilang product,” ani Dr. Nina Gloriani, chairperson ng DOST vaccine expert panel.
Nangako naman si DOST Sec. Fortunato dela Pena nang mahigpit na monitoring ng kagawaran sa iba’t-ibang developments na may kinalaman sa lunas ng COVID-19.
“While we are called to work faster in providing the needed solutions, we commit advance science for the benefit of the Filipino people without compromising processes, research results, and the welfare of human participants in research.”
