Vaccines against Covid-19 might be commercially available in the Philippines by early next year, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said that as of now, only Janssen Pharmaceuticals of Johnson & Johnson has applied for a Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) in the country’s Food and Drug Administration.
Vergeire said that the evaluation of CPR applications is a long process.
“Once a vaccine has a CPR, it can already be available commercially. Itong Janssen nag submit na po sila, iniievaluate iyan. But of course, alam niyo po na kailangan pag-aralan maigi (Janssen has already submitted , and it is already being evaluated. But of course, you know that it needs to be studied carefully) because this is not EUA anymore,” said Vergeire in a radio interview on Wednesday, Aug. 17.
“This is going to be the CPR na talaga na maibibigay mo na yung bakuna sa lahat-lahat ng ating populasyon (meaning you can give the vaccine to the general population) commercially. Kaya kailangan pag-aralan maigi (This is why It is imperative to study this carefully). So it would take months. Baka po mga early next year meron na po tayong may CPR na bakuna (Maybe early next year, we will have a vaccine that has already secured a CPR),” she added.
To note, all Covid-19 vaccines that are being used in the country currently are under emergency use authorization.
Next generation vaccines
Meanwhile, Vergeire said that the DOH has already set aside a budget for the possible procurement of new generation vaccines against Covid-19.
The DOH official said that these vaccines are expected to be released by the manufacturers this coming October. She explained that these vaccines are “bivalent and multivalent” which are formulated to “specifically address” more mutations of the Covid-19 virus variants such as the Omicron.
“Pero may mga proseso tayo dito sa Pilipinas na kailangan ma-comply natin. Unang-una kailangan niyan na mag apply ng EUA sa atin, pag-aralan maigi ng ating mga eksperto (But we have processes here in the Philippines that we need to comply with. First of all, it is necessary for them to apply for an EUA and this should be studied thoroughly by our experts),” said Vergeire in a press briefing on Tuesday, Aug. 16.
“The question if we have a budget for that, yes. We already have discussed this and we already have reserved some budget for us to procure these kinds of vaccines if and when lumabas na siya para sa (it has already been made available for the) entire population” she added.