(Eagle News) – Malacanang said that the World Health Organization (WHO) grant of emergency use listing (EUL) for China’s Sinovac vaccine would enable the country to borrow funds from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the payment of the vaccines.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that this is one of the main benefits of WHO’s grant of EUL to the Chinese vaccine. This is aside from the boost in public confidence in the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
“Ang World Health Organization emergency use listing po ng Sinovac ay patunay na bukod pa sa sarili nating Food and Drug Administration na nagsasabi na ligtas at epektibo an gSinovac, ganyan din ang naging pananaw ng WHO,” he said.
“At dahil dito alam mo bang puede nang ipangutang ang pambayad sa Sinovac galing sa ADB at sa World Bank.”
Roque explained that the Philippine government has been paying in cash for the Sinovac doses that it had bought.
“Pero ngayon po pupuede na nating ipangutang sa World Bank at sa ADB, ang pambayad sa SInovac,” he said in the Balitalakayan interview on Friday.
Roque said that as far as he could recall, there are around 30 million doses of Sinovac vaccines in all that the Philippines is getting. This is the second most number of vaccine supplies in the country’s vaccine portfolio.
The highest number of vaccines doses that the Philippines is getting is from Novovax at 40 million doses, he said. The rest are between 20 million to 25 million doses.
“Ang alam kong pinakamraming mabibili natin ay yung Novovac galing sa India, 40 million (doses). Itong Sinovac ay pangalawa po, kung hindi ako nagkakamali, parang 30 million po yan. Pero yung iba namang mga bakuna, hindi nagkakalayo naman, mga 20 to 25 million,” he said.
As of June 3, Sinovac doses delivered so far in the country have reached 5.5 million. The country’s vaccine supplies are at over 8.2 million so far.
-WHO EUL on Sinovac to bolster public confidence in vaccine-
The WHO EUL listing for Sinovac, as well as the other vaccines being used in the country, would bolster vaccine confidence among Filipinos.
“Napakalaki po yang tulong para mapataas natin ang kumpiyansa sa ating mga bakuna, lalo na sa Sinovac.na pinakamaraming tinuturok natin sa ating mga kababayan,” Roque said.
So far, WHO has given EUL to the following vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech, Astrazeneca-SK Bio, Serum Institute of India, Astra Zeneca EU, Janssen, Moderna and Sinopharm.
WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) is a prerequisite for COVAX Facility vaccine supply and international procurement. It also allows countries to expedite their own regulatory approval to import and administer COVID-19 vaccines.
“The EUL assesses the quality, safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as risk management plans and programmatic suitability, such as cold chain requirements. The assessment is performed by the product evaluation group, composed by regulatory experts from around the world and a Technical Advisory Group (TAG), in charge of performing the risk-benefit assessment for an independent recommendation on whether a vaccine can be listed for emergency use and, if so, under which conditions,” WHO said.
In the case of the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine, the WHO assessment included on-site inspections of the production facility, it said.
The Sinovac-CoronaVac product is an inactivated vaccine. Its easy storage requirements make it very manageable and particularly suitable for low-resource settings.
(Eagle News Service)