The country is set to conduct a study on the effects of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines on fully vaccinated Filipinos, an official of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) bared on Tuesday, May 25.
During an online forum hosted by the Department of Health (DOH), DOST Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said that the research study will possibly start by next month as this initiative would still need the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Guevarra said that the research study aims to answer questions regarding the effects of the vaccines on Filipino ethnicity and how long its protection lasts.
"Habang nagro-rollout ng bakuna ang DOH, we need to know kung ano yung real world performance ng mga bakunang ginagamit natin. And to that end, meron tayong isang project (While the DOH is rolling out vaccines, we need to know what the real world performance of these vaccines that we are using. And to that end, we have a project), this is going to be implemented by UP-Manila," said Guevarra.
"Ang gagawin nila, habang nagva-vaccinate yung ating DOH, pipili tayo ng mga participants doon na susundan natin kung ano yung nangyayari sa kanila after the vaccination for about a year or so (What they will do, while our DOH is vaccinating, they will select participants, They will observe their progress after completing the vaccination---for about a year or so)," she added.
This study aims to recruit "a thousand participants." Around P100 million has been allocated for this initiative. It also aimed at including all the vaccine brands that would be part of the government's vaccination rollout, said Guevarra.
At present, the Philippine government is currently using in its COVID-19 vaccination program the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, and Gamaleya Research Institute.
The country, meanwhile, is still waiting for the supply of other approved vaccines namely: Moderna, Janssen, and Covaxin.
Mix and match project
The DOST also announced that it will also launch a study on mixing and matching of COVID-19 vaccine brands
“Iyang mix and match na clinical trial ico-conduct natin iyan para masagot yung tanong na pag ba yung isang brand ang aking first dose tapos sinundan ko ng second brand, anong mangyayari sa immunogenicity at safe pa rin bang gawin (We will conduct that mix and match clinical trial to answer the question: what will happen to the immunogenicity if my first and second dose are of two different brands, and if it's safe)... And, specific to that Filipino ethnicity,” said Guevarra.
An FDA approval is also needed before they could start this study, said Guevarra.
The study also aimed at knowing the effectiveness of mixing and matching of vaccine brands against the various variants of coronavirus.
“That would be part of the expected result from this. So far, we know that we already have the COVID-19 variants in our country. So in a way, when they do the measurements for the different immune response analysis, they would be able to determine if a combination would probably work better for a particular variant,” she added.
The possible number of participants for this initiative was pegged at 1,600, while P100 million will also be allocated for this, said Guevarra.
The study sites will be in the National Capital Region, Cebu, and Davao. “The choice of the actual sites will depend on the willingness of the LGUs to collaborate with us. Then as usual, we would have a call for applicants or volunteer participants for this clinical trial,” said Guevarra.