MANILA – Two more vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been granted with an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).
FDA director general Eric Domingo announced on Tuesday that EUA applications of the Covaxin of India’s Bharat Biotech and Janssen of Johnson and Johnson have been approved.
“The vaccines had met the conditions for an EUA after a rigorous review of late-stage trial data concluded that known and potential benefits of the vaccine outweighed its known and potential risks,” he said.
Covaxin sought the EUA on January 22 while Janssen applied on March 31.
The country has already secured at least five million doses of the Janssen vaccine. The initial delivery is expected to arrive in July.
However, the Philippines has no supply deal with Covaxin’s manufacturer but India’s envoy Shmabhu Kumaran said they can supply the country with at least eight million doses.
Covaxin, which is made of an inactivated virus-based vaccine product that uses a killed form of SARS-CoV-2, is 95 percent and 92 percent effective on the study population and among all races, respectively.
Janssen, a one-shot COVID-19 vaccine, has an effectiveness rate of 85.4 percent.
FDA has previously granted EUA for vaccines of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, and Gamaleya./PN
