Officials said Friday the country, hobbled by infections and deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, would need 15,000 to 20,000 participants for the World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial for COVID-19 vaccines.
The clinical trial is aimed at getting safety and efficacy data directly attributed to the Filipino people, said Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato de la Peña.
This can be “beneficial for eventual application for product registration” with the Food and Drug Administration and ramp up vaccine distribution, he said:
He added in a recorded video message: “The quicker we find the most effective and safest vaccines of distribution, the earlier the world could reach WHO’s immunization targets. When we hit these targets, we could prevent people from being infected, we reduce the number of people suffering and dying.”
Jaime Montoya, executive director of the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, himself said: “We are not just looking after ourselves but after other people beyond our borders because we are contributing to the global effort to find the most effective vaccines for specific populations.”
The trial at present involves 2 vaccines, a subunit vaccine and a DNA vaccine, with participants to be monitored for a year, according to principal investigators Marissa Alejandria and Jodor Lim. Participants may also receive a placebo, they said.
“After a participant is evaluated, they will be monitored every week for about a year to find out if they develop any symptoms and that will be the trigger whether these participants will undergo RT-PCR,” Lim said.
The subunit vaccine targets the spike protein of the virus and is similar to hepatitis B vaccines in the country, according to Alejandria. The DNA vaccine also encodes the spike protein of the virus and does not yet have an emergency use authorization in the Philippines, she said.
Both vaccines are to be given in 2 doses, four weeks apart, and have a 2 to 8 degrees celsius storage requirement, she added.