The Philippines will begin the third phase of clinical trials of the Russian coronavirus vaccine in October, local newspaper Inquirer reports, citing presidential spokesman Harri Roque.
The report says the vaccine trials will last until the end of March 2021 and the vaccine must be approved by the Philippines Food and Drug Administration by April. The third phase of clinical trials will involve tens of thousands of patients.
The clinical trials will be funded by the Russian government, Roque said.
On August 11, the Russian Ministry of Health registered the world’s first vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus COVID-19, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in cooperation with the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
On the same day, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte volunteered to be the first to test the Russian vaccine against coronavirus. He asked the head of the Ministry of Health Francisco Duque to discuss with the Russian government a possible transfer of vaccine production technology.
Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), announced the fund’s readiness to conduct clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine in the Philippines. He said that the Philippines is one of the important partner countries of Russia for the coronavirus vaccine, RDIF is ready to conduct clinical trials in the Philippines in August.
According to the Worldometers portal, 143,749 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the country, 68,997 people have recovered, 2,404 have died.
The spread of the new type of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19, began at the end of December last year. The Chinese city of Wuhan became the hotbed of infection. In March, WHO announced a coronavirus pandemic.
Up-to-date information on the situation with the coronavirus is available on the websites of stopcoronavirus.rf and access vsem.rf, as well as by the hashtag #WeV Together. The hotline for the coronavirus is 8 (800) 2000-112.