Australian drug firm applies to conduct clinical trials for candidate COVID-19 vaccine

October 30, 2020

An Australian pharmaceutical firm has become the fourth company to formally apply to conduct clinical trials in the Philippines for their coronavirus disease (COVID-19) candidate vaccine.

In a virtual press briefing Friday, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Eric Domingo  said Clover Biopharmaceuticals AUS PTY Ltd., expressed interest  doing clinical trials in the Philippines.

"There is a company that has shown interest in doing clinical trials here in the Philippines and they are now undergoing pre-screening with the Vaccine Experts Panel (VEP)," said Domingo.

"Clover Biopharmaceuticals from Australia is now also being evaluated by the VEP," he added.

Domingo said the other companies that applied for a clinical trial were Sinovac Biotech Ltd. of China, Johnson & Johnson - Janssen Pharmaceuticals from the United States, and Gamaleya Research Institute from Russia.

He said Sinovac passed the VEP evaluation, while undergoing a separate regulatory evaluation from the Single Joint Research Ethics Board and the FDA.

Janssen is undergoing pre-screening from the VEP.

Domingo said Gamaleya is expected to submit additional documents before formal evaluation by the VEP begins. DMS