MANILA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Philippine senators on Friday
questioned the government's preference for the Chinese COVID-19
vaccine after latest data showed it has a lower efficacy rate,
saying this would not bode well for a country seeking to boost
confidence in vaccines.
President Rodrigo Duterte's office said on Monday it was
expecting to receive next month the first batch of coronavirus
shots developed by Sinovac Biotech, which at that time has not
yet filed an emergency use request with local regulators.
The initial shipment was part of the 25 million doses the
Philippines has secured from the Chinese vaccine maker, which
some senators want scrapped after new data from Brazil showing
efficacy that was much lower than initially announced.
"There are other vaccines with a much higher efficacy at
lower, if not more competitive, cost. Why are we insisting that
we buy Sinovac?" Senator Franklin Drilon asked members of the
government's coronavirus task force.
"The insistence or preference for Sinovac cannot be denied
and will not augur well for building up confidence of people in
our ability to address the pandemic," Drilon said.
An opinion poll showed on Thursday that less than a third of
Filipinos are willing to get inoculated against the coronavirus
as many have voiced concerns over the safety of vaccines.
The Philippines' Food and Drug Administration has yet to
begin evaluating Sinovac's emergency-use request, which the FDA
only received on Wednesday. Only vaccines approved by the FDA
can be administered.
On Thursday, the FDA said it had authorised emergency use of
the vaccine developed by Pfizer PFE.N and BioNTech 22UAy.DE ,
the first to be approved in the Philippines. To boost the acceptability of Chinese-made vaccines,
Duterte, in a televised address on Wednesday night, said they
are as good as the shots developed in the United States and
Europe. The firebrand leader, who has pursued warmer relations with
Beijing, has said previously his preference was for his country
to source its COVID-19 vaccines from either China or Russia.
The Philippines has among the greatest number of coronavirus
cases in Asia but has lagged regional peers in securing
vaccines, with which Manila hopes this year to inoculate 70
million people, or two-thirds of the population.
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EXPLAINER-What's behind varying efficacy data for Sinovac's
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