MANILA – The Philippines is set to receive additional 1,000 vials of anti-viral drug remdesivir to be used in the ongoing Solidarity Trial of the World Health Organization (WHO), a health official said Wednesday.
"This is good news for us. This is going to be the third shipment of remdesivir in the country where we're going to receive 1,000 vials from WHO," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in during a virtual media forum.
Apart from remdesivir, the WHO will also send interferon which is under study as a potential treatment for patients with Covid-19.
"As of Sept. 7, there are already 1,009 moderate to severe Covid-19 patients who entered the criteria and currently using the medicines or off-label drugs among 24 study sites," Vergeire said.
She added that these sites are located in the National Capital Region, Baguio City, Batangas, Cebu and Davao.
Citing that the WHO has changed the protocol, Vergeire said the WHO planned to add a new drug to be tested in the trial.
"There'll be a new medicine to be added. We'll let you know when the protocol is finalized," she added.
Earlier, Vergeire said the vaccines to be included in the solidarity trial would be identified in the third or fourth week of September while the sites for the conduct of the trials would be identified by the end of September.
The Philippines’ participation in the Solidarity Trial was approved by the Single Joint Research Ethics Board on April 17 in support of the Covid-19 global response.
The Solidarity Trial, which started four months ago, aims to test the safety and effectiveness of four possible therapies in treating Covid-19, compared to standard of care: remdesivir, anti-malarial drug chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV lopinavir with ritonavir, and lopinavir with ritonavir plus interferon beta-1a. (PNA)
