Vaccine production
DEVELOPING countries “now find it difficult” to procure enough`COVID-19 vaccines to meet the needs of their citizens as the deadly virus continues to claim the lives people across the globe.
This saddening, lamentable and disturbing development prompted well-meaning leaders of impoverished Philippines to look into the possibility of reviving the local production of vaccines.
Actually, the local manufacture of vaccines is not new in this Southeast Asian nation, according to Secretary Fortunato dela Pena of the Department of Science and Technology.
Records showed that the country even donated vaccines to China in 1939. Note that China is now one of the world’s premier manufacturers of vaccines and medicines.
The vaccines were produced in the Serum and Vaccine Laboratory in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, which was operated by the University of the Philippines’ College of Public Health, then known as the “Institute of Hygiene.”
“Hindi ito bago sa atin…At tulad niya (dela Pena), akoy naniniwala na kaya ulit nating gawin ito,” said Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Sec. Martin Andanar.
It’s about time the Philippines attains vaccine self-sufficiency, according to Andanar, a working broadcast journalist before he joined the government service.
No less than President Duterte, whose six-year presidency ends on June 30, 2022, supports the snowballing move to revive the local manufacture of vaccines in the country.
In fact, Duterte, the first Mindanaoan to hold the top political post of the land, has ordered concerned government offices and agencies to hasten the processing of requirements.
Reports said that the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s leading manufacturer of vaccines, is willing to help the Philippines in reviving the local production of vaccines.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, a retired military general, was in India recently to meet with SII officials and scientists.
Certainly, the Filipino people, including the ordinary citizens across the country, support government efforts to resume the local production of vaccines.
