Original article courtesy of Inquirer.net

By: Katrina Hallare

MANILA, Philippines — China’s biggest pharmaceutical company, the state-owned Sinopharm, has invited the Philippines to join its trial of a vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Health Secretary Francisco Duque III bared Wednesday at the Senate Committee of the Whole hearing.

“We have a letter from China, from Sinopharm, China’s biggest pharmaceutical company, which offered to include us in its global clinical trial for their newly-developed vaccine,” Duque said.

Previously, Sinopharm also extended a similar invitation to Pakistan.

In the Senate hearing, Duque also revealed that 148 patients had agreed to be part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Solidarity Trial for COVID-19 treatment.

As of Wednesday, the Philippines has 13,221 COVID-19 cases, of whom 842 have died while 2,932 have recovered.