The Philippines is aggressively pursuing African swine fever (ASF) vaccine trials, as the government is keen on forging two more partnerships with private companies to undertake tests on a prospective inoculation against the fatal hog disease.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar disclosed on Monday two new companies have signified interests to conduct ASF vaccine trials in the Philippines, which is reeling from a pork shortfall caused by the disease. Dar withheld the names and descriptions of the two companies pending the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the concerned parties.
“There are new vaccines, new companies presenting themselves,” he told reporters at a virtual news briefing, adding that the new vaccine trials—should they push through—will be undertaken in areas where there are high cases of ASF.
Furthermore, Dar explained that the government couldn’t reveal the results of the Phase 1 trial of the ASF vaccine developed by United States-based Zoetis Inc. due to a confidentiality clause. The first phase of the vaccine trial started in late April and ended sometime in August.
“The agreement signed by the Bureau of Animal Industry [BAI] with the private sector company in the United States had a provision that the results of ASF vaccine trials here in the Philippines will be released to the public by the company,” he said.
“We are waiting for them to make it public,” the agriculture chief added. The initial ASF vaccine trials seek to determine if the vaccines would increase the hogs’ antibodies against ASF. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/04/27/phl-starts-vaccine-trial-against-deadly-asf/)
Dar said he has already instructed BAI officials to scrap the provision in future MOAs of ASF vaccine trials with prospective pharmaceutical companies to preserve the right of the state to release trial results to the public.
“I directed BAI to remove the confidentiality [clause] that only the companies will release the results. There should be equal responsibility to bring this out to the public,” he said.
“That will be the new policy direction of BAI, if they will sign with new vaccine companies promoting ASF vaccines. It is a good policy that equally we can also mention this to the public,” he added.
Earlier, Dar pronounced that the government expects that all the phases of its on-going ASF vaccine trials would be completed within the year, with a final decision on the use of the vaccine being rendered before the year ends.
In fact, the agriculture chief has already publicly proposed that the national government must shoulder the entire cost of vaccinating the country’s some 9.7 million pigs against ASF once the trials yield positive results. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/08/09/national-govt-urged-to-pay-for-asf-vaccines/)
In February, the Department of Agriculture created a technical working committee that would oversee the ASF vaccine development and manufacturing in the country. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/02/12/da-forms-panel-to-oversee-asf-vaccine-development-manufacturing-program/)
The Philippines has been battling against ASF for over two years now, with at least 400,000 hogs being culled by the government to control and eradicate the fatal hog disease. The ASF has caused a drastic shortfall in domestic pork supply that has ballooned to 651,000 metric tons (MT) from an earlier estimate of about 400,000 MT, based on latest expert calculations.