The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved for emergency use Covid-19 vaccines by US drugmaker Moderna.
In the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum, FDA chief Eric Domingo said the benefits of using the vaccine outweigh its known and potential risks.
“After a rigorous and thorough review by regulatory and our medical experts using the currently available published and unpublished data, the FDA is granting an emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine Moderna,” Domingo said.
He added that Moderna filed its emergency use authorization application on April 26, and it took the FDA around 10 days to review it.
According to Domingo, the vaccine has been found to be 94-percent effective against Covid-19 based on ongoing clinical trials.
The other Covid-19 vaccines approved for emergency use in the Philippines are two-dose vaccines Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Covaxin and Sputnik V and the single-dose Janssen vaccine.
Last March, the Philippine government and Moderna entered into a supply deal for 13 million vaccine doses to be delivered in the country by mid-2021.
Another seven million doses were ordered by the private sector. John Ezekiel J. Hirro