DOH SAYS

Philippine regulators verifying vaccine 'bribery history' of Sinovac

Philippine regulators will validate reports alleging that Chinese firm Sinovac bribed authorities to hasten approval for the use of its vaccines, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Wednesday.

Duque was responding to a Washington Post report that Sinovac’s founder and chief executive Yin Weidong—in a 2016 court testimony—admitted to bribing regulatory authorities in China to the tune of $83,000 from 2002 to 2011 to fast track the approval of its vaccines.

Sinovac, which is looking to supply the Philippines with COVID-19 vaccine, already secured the approval of the Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The same US newspaper report also said that at least 20 government officials and hospital administrators admitted to taking bribes from Sinovac employees between 2008 and 2016 in their testimonies in court.

“We are aware of what is happening. Part of the work is for the VEP to assess the veracity of such report, kung merong katotohahan nito,” Duque said in an online forum.

“Hindi naman natin masabi kung questionable ba ang pinanggalingan ng ganitong balita, but we will investigate, validate, if this is true. If true, it is up for the VEP to include this in their report,” Duque added.

Duque said that aside from the VEP, the Ethics Board and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will also look on the reports alleging irregularity on Sinovac’s operations.

A COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer would need to secure the approval of the VEP, Ethics Board and FDA before their vaccines can be administered in the Philippines.

“That is why they (regulatory agencies) are there para masigurado natin na 'di tayo mabibiktima ng mga questionable transactions ng Sinovac, kung totoong nangyayari po ‘yan,” Duque added.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez earlier said that the government is eyeing to give COVID-19 vaccines to 25 million Filipinos in 2021.

Moreover, Galvez said that the first COVID-19 vaccines that the country is likely to get are from Sinovac since this has already been approved for emergency use authorization in China.

The Philippines has recorded 442,785 COVID-19 cases so far. Of this number, 408,790 recovered while 8,670 died.

The number of active COVID-19 cases is 25,325. —LBG, GMA News