Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 18) — The Department of Science and Technology has been in talks with six Chinese and Taiwanese organizations and research groups for possible clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine, President Rodrigo Duterte revealed in his eight weekly report to Congress on his administration’s efforts against the disease.
Duterte said the DOST has conducted “exploratory talks for possible involvement in the clinical trials” with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and SinoPharm in China, Academia Sinica, the National Health Research Institute, Chang Gung University and Adimmune Corporation in Taiwan.
The vaccine being developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sinopharm and the Wuhan Institute of Virology has entered the second phase of clinical trials, with 96 people being given the experimental vaccine, according to Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.
The DOST said in March that it is eyeing to launch clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine in the country, with four foreign partners being contacted for the testing of the potential vaccine.
The World Health Organization expects that a vaccine for COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus, may be available in 18 months. Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines executive director Teodoro Padilla expects it to come even earlier, with a vaccine likely to be developed by year-end.
By comparison, researchers took about 20 months to start human tests for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome vaccine, CNN reported.
COVID-19, a disease spread through droplets when a person who has it coughs or sneezes, has infected 12,718 in the Philippines. Of them, 831 have died while 2,729 have recovered.
Globally, over 4.7 million have been infected and over 315,000 have died due to the disease, while 1,739,003 have recovered, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University based on data reported by governments.
CNN Philippines’ Xave Gregorio contributed to this report.
