Photo: George Calvelo / ABS-CBN News" width="100%" />
An initial 500 Filipino patients will be asked to participate in clinical trials to be conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to find a cure for COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) announced today.
“Initially, 500 patients are included in the trial that will happen in 20 hospitals here in the Philippines,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual presser in English and Filipino.
Vergeire added that that the selected hospitals will not just be from Metro Manila but in different parts of the country, which includes Baguio General Hospital and the Southern Phil Medical Center in Davao City.
Trials may start as early as Friday if documentary requirements are completed, she said.
“[We have plans on starting] even if the shipment of the drugs is yet to arrive, once we have all the documents in order, our proponents can start the trial tomorrow,” Vergeire said.
“We will first use whatever stocks of medicine we have here in the Philippines, and replace it with the shipment from the WHO,” she added, without specifying what those medicines were.
Read: Money, Money, Money: Duterte offers PHP10M reward to Filipino who invents COVID-19 vaccine
The WHO’s Solidarity Trial, which will be conducted in multiple countries, will test the effectivity of four drugs: Remdesivir, Lopinavir and Ritonavir, Lopinavir and Ritonavir with Interferon beta-1a, and Chloroquine.
