Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 8) — A group of health experts is asking the Food and Drug Administration to cancel the compassionate use permits it issued to COVID-19 vaccines without emergency use authorization (EUA) amid safety concerns.
In a statement signed by members of the Healthcare Professionals Alliance against COVID-19, the group said it “recommends to policymakers that existing CSPs for any COVID-19 vaccines without EUAs be rescinded, and that the said vaccines undergo proper EUA process before being administered to any Filipino.”
This is following the recent inoculation of President Rodrigo Duterte with China’s Sinopharm vaccine, which has yet to apply and receive EUA in the Philippines.
The group noted that six out of ten Filipinos are still hesitant to receive coronavirus shots. It is now a challenge to convince them to do so and using a vaccine without EUA further erodes the trust and confidence of the people, it added.
The HPAAC said it is crucial that only vaccines with EUA are made available to the public, since such authority issued by experts assures the safety and efficacy of these COVID-19 shots.
“This will ultimately improve vaccine uptake since it will assure the people that any COVID-19 vaccine that is offered to them for vaccination is safe, effective, and equitable,” the group said.
On Monday, the President received his first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine, which the Palace said was among the doses granted with the compassionate use permit.
After being criticized for using Sinopharm, Duterte apologized to the public and asked the Chinese Ambassador to withdraw their donated doses.
In December, the FDA started to look into the entry of “smuggled” Sinopharm vaccines to the country after it was revealed that members of the Presidential Security Group had already been vaccinated with the unregistered doses.
It was only in February 2021 that the state regulator granted the PSG a special compassionate permit to use 10,000 doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine.
The FDA has so far issued EUA to COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Gamaleya, Sinovac, Bharat Biotech, and Janssen.
