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UAE intends to donate 500K Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses to Philippines


The United Arab Emirates (UAE) intends to donate 500,000 doses of Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Thursday.

“I believe ‘yung UAE, they have the intention of donating 500,000 na Sinopharm,” Galvez said in a Palace briefing.

So far, the Philippines has received one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac, another Beijing-based pharmaceutical firm, and 525,600 doses from British-Swedish drug firm AstraZeneca through the COVAX facility.

Galvez said the Philippines will get a total of 33 million donated COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX Facility.

Early this April, the Food and Drug Administration said Sinopharm has no pending application for emergency use authorization (EUA) of COVID-19 vaccine.

In December last year, President Rodrigo Duterte spilled the beans about members of the Presidential Security Group who were inoculated with Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine smuggled into the country.

PSG commander Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III later confirmed the President’s information, saying that the security group members indeed received COVID-19 vaccine.

It was only in February this year that the FDA granted compassionate use permit for 10,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine for PSG members.

A compassionate use permit, however, only allows for legal administration of COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines and is not tantamount to the FDA endorsing the product’s safety and efficacy.—AOL, GMA News

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