No permit to conduct clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccine in the country has been issued yet nor a COVID-19 has been approved, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) maintained on Monday.
This was according to DOST Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara, chair of the Inter-Agency Task Force's sub-technical working group (TWG) on vaccine development.
The same was also stated by DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) Executive Director Jaime Montoya.
"Officially there is no clinical trial that had started on vaccines in the Philippines and no vaccine has yet been approved anywhere in the world," he said.
They gave the statements following reports that some lawmakers were immunized through an "experimental" trial of a COVID-19 vaccine.
These solons were Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez. It was mentioned by Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III in a radio interview over DWIZ.
"DOST is working on 'vaccine clinical trials' and so far FDA has not issued yet any permit to conduct such clinical trial for COVID-19 vaccine. We are not aware of "experimental" vaccine trials," Guevara said.
Montoya added that Filipinos abroad however, can participate in clinical trials in countries they are in.
"But strictly speaking even Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) may participate in clinical trials in the Middle East for as long as they give their informed consent and they satisfy the inclusion criteria for the trial," he added.