{"id":252770,"date":"2020-04-21T06:37:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T10:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=252770"},"modified":"2020-04-21T06:37:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T10:37:04","slug":"p10-m-reward-awaits-filipinos-who-can-develop-covid-19-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/21\/p10-m-reward-awaits-filipinos-who-can-develop-covid-19-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"P10-M reward awaits Filipinos who can develop Covid-19 vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte addresses the nation on the government’s efforts against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on April 16, 2020. KARL NORMAN ALONZO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte will be giving up to PHP10-million reward to Filipino scientists and experts who can develop a vaccine against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Malaca\u00f1ang said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In a virtual presser, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte made this pronouncement after meeting with health experts, including former secretaries of the Department of Health (DOH) on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cInanunsyo po ng Pangulo na siyang magbibigay ng pabuya ng hanggang<\/em>\u00a0PHP10 million\u00a0sa kahit sinong Pilipino na makaka-diskubre ng<\/em>\u00a0vaccine\u00a0laban sa<\/em>\u00a0Covid-19 (The President announced that he will be giving a PHP 10 million reward to any Filipino who can discover a vaccine against Covid-19),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said Duterte will also be giving the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) a \u201csubstantial grant\u201d to develop a vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cPinapa-anunsyo din po ng ating Presidente na siya po\u2019y magbibigay ng isang<\/em>\u00a0substantial grant\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0UP\u00a0at sa<\/em>\u00a0UP-PGH\u00a0para po maka<\/em>-develop\u00a0nga ng bakuna laban dito sa<\/em>\u00a0Covid-19 (The President is also asking me to announce that he will give a substantial grant to UP and UP-PGH to develop a vaccine to fight Covid-19),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He did not mention the amount of the substantial grant to be given to the state-run UP-PGH.<\/p>\n

In a televised meeting with select members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) Inter-Agency Task Force last April 9, Duterte praised UP-PGH for considering the use of antibodies found in the blood of Covid-19 survivors to treat patients who were severely ill.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng pag-asa natin is — including UP, itong atin ipagmalaki rin natin ang mga doktor natin. Iyang mga bright. \u2018Yung na — gumaling na, nagkaroon na \u2018yan sila ng<\/em>\u00a0antibodies (Our hope is\u2026including UP, we take pride in our doctors. They\u2019re bright. They found out that those who have recovered from Covid-19 have antibodies),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A team of scientists from the UP-National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH), the Philippine Genome Center, and The Manila HealthTek Inc. also developed Covid-19 test kits which can release results in just two hours.<\/p>\n

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a certificate of product registration to the locally-made test kits last April 3.<\/p>\n

During his address at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations\u2019 (Asean) Plus Three Summit on Covid-19 with Japan, China and South Korea last April 15, Duterte said the Philippines is willing to join the other countries in conducting clinical trials of Avigan, a Japanese anti-viral drug, for potential treatment of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Researches at Wuhan University and other institutions in China have revealed that Avigan, developed by a subsidiary of Japan-based Fujifilm Holdings Corp., is seen as an effective drug in treating Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Japan has begun conducting clinical tests to examine the effectiveness and safety of Avigan, otherwise known as Favipiravir, to Covid-19 patients.<\/p>\n

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga earlier announced the Japanese government\u2019s plan to offer Avigan for free to nations hit by Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Earlier, World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO) health emergency program executive director Dr. Mike Ryan said it could take at least a year to develop a vaccine as protection against Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Though a vaccine has yet to be developed, he said countries could start implementing strong measures such as widespread testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte will be giving up to PHP10-million reward to Filipino scientists and experts who can develop a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":252384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252772,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252770\/revisions\/252772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}