Galvez maintains Sinovac ‘at par’ with Western-made COVID-19 vaccines

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. on Wednesday maintained that Chinese-made Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine is “performing well and at par” with Western-made brands.

His statement came a day after Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon urged Galvez to procure more effective and less expensive COVID-19 vaccines, citing the COVID-19 deaths and infections among health workers in Indonesia who were vaccinated with Sinovac.

Galvez explained the vaccines in the country’s supply portfolio underwent “rigorous review” by the Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) and the country’s procurement will be based on their assessment of its safety and efficacy “regardless of the brand.”

So far, Galvez said all vaccines granted with the Food and Drug Administration’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) are performing well in the real-world conditions compared to its respective clinical trial results.

“Based on initial real world data provided to us by our VEP, Sinovac is 90% effective in preventing intensive care admissions and deaths in Uruguay, and 94% effective in protecting health care workers (Indonesia),” Galvez said.

“This shows that Sinovac is performing well and at par with Western-made vaccine brands. In addition, the China-made vaccine is being used in more than 28 countries around the world,” he added.

Moreover, Galvez explained that the VEP has discouraged them from concluding the efficacy of different vaccines against the more dangerous Delta variant as the data-gathering is still ongoing.

“We ensure that all the policies that we craft and implement are science-based and evidence-based. I will always consider the advice of our experts and not from people who do not want to listen to more prudent and deliberate decision-making,” Galvez ended.

‘Preference for Sinovac’

On Wednesday, Drilon questioned the government's apparent preference on Sinovac than other COVID-19 vaccines.

He claimed that the price of Pfizer is quite lower than Sinovac.

“That’s a basic logic: why choose a vaccine that is less effective yet more expensive over a vaccine that is more effective but less expensive?” Drilon asked.

The FDA approved Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine for emergency use in February this year. It was the vaccine used when the government officially rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination program in March.

Based on Philippine FDA evaluation,  Sinovac's efficacy rate is 65% to 91% for those aged 18 to 59. Its efficacy rate on health workers and elderly are at 50.4% and 51%, respectively.

In January, the FDA also approved the emergency use authorization (EUA) to the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech.

The FDA said interim data from the ongoing Phase 3 trial of Pfizer vaccine shows the vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95% in the study population and at least 92% among all racial groups.

On Monday, one million more doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the Philippines, bringing the country's total supply of the vaccine brand to 12 million doses.

Meanwhile, the Philippines on June 20 announced that it has signed an agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech for the procurement of 40 million doses of the American firm's COVID-19 vaccines.

The Philippines has a total of 17,455,470 vaccine doses as of Monday, including those from Moderna, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sputnik V. — RSJ, GMA News