Amid recent reports purporting that the Department of Health (DOH) did not act on documents for the participation of the Philippines in the clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Sinopharm, the DOH categorically denies these baseless accusations and clarifies that the country’s participation in several clinical trials including that of Sinopharm’s was approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) as early as May, as resolved in the IATF-EID Resolution No. 39 dated 22 May 2020.

Moreover, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) clarifies that upon the IATF-EID’s approval of the country’s participation in the clinical trials of a number of pharmaceutical companies, Sinopharm reached out to DOST with two proposals for collaboration: (1) the conduct of their clinical trial will be funded by the Philippines, or (2) Philippines will recognize the approval/authorization from their country. In response, DOST wrote back to them to say that the Philippines only funds trials under the WHO Solidarity Trial. The DOST notes that Sinopharm never responded to this letter.

Further, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that as of writing, Sinopharm has not submitted any application for clinical trials nor Emergency Use Authorization.