UAE planned to donate Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Philippines, according to Galvez.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. on Thursday said that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) planned to donate Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Philippines.
Galvez said in a Palace briefing that the United Arab Emirates had the intention of donating 500,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Philippines.
“I believe ‘yung UAE, they have the intention of donating also ‘yung 500,000 na Sinopharm,” Galvez said, but gave no details about it.
Sinopharm had yet to secure an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
READ ALSO | FDA: 2 Companies Express Intent To Get EUA For Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine
According to the Food and Drug Administration, Sinopharm had yet to submit its application for an EUA but someone wrote to the FDA seeking to apply for emergency use.
“Mayroon pong sumulat sa amin na gustong mag-apply, pero nung hiningan po namin ng requirements, hindi pa po nila binibigay, and we’re still waiting for that,” FDA Director-General Eric Domingo told President Rodrigo Duterte in a televised meeting last April 13.
A certain company must first receive an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration before its COVID-19 vaccine can be administered in the Philippines.
However, there had been reports on the smuggling and illegal administration of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine since last year.
READ ALSO: FDA OKs Compassionate Use Of Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine For PSG Members
This was confirmed by President Rodrigo Duterte last December 2020, when he bared some troops had already been vaccinated with the unregistered COVID-19 vaccine.
Two months after, the Food and Drug Administration granted the Presidential Security Group (PSG) a “compassionate special permit” to access 10,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses.
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