MANILA — The Food and Drug Administration has created a task force to hasten the release of COVID-19 drugs in the Philippine market.

According to FDA Director General Samuel Zacate, Task Force Fleming will streamline the approval and evaluation of COVID-19 drugs "without compromising efficacy, quality and safety".

The state drug regulator has issued emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 drugs and vaccines with certain conditions.

"Now, with the introduction of Task Force Fleming, COVID-19 drugs that will be approved and issued with Certificates of Product Registration will be readily accessible to the public in FDA-licensed drug establishments with the assurance that any post-market issues will be addressed through more rigorous surveillance and pharmacovigilance," Zacate said in a statement.

To date, 4 COVID-19 drug EUA holders have submitted their applications for a CPR.

• WHO notes 89 pct decline in COVID- infections, 62 pct in deaths globally

Zacate urged pharmaceutical companies to apply for a CPR.

Department of Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire also made a similar appeal.

"We welcome FDA’s efforts to institutionalize this initiative that will focus on processing the registration of COVID-19 drugs and to make them available commercially," she said in a statement.

"We also encourage manufacturers or suppliers to transition their COVID-19 EUAs into a product registration as this will be a good start to our economic recovery."

As of February 23, the Philippines has 9,269 active COVID-19 cases.

Since the pandemic started, the country has recorded over 4 million coronavirus infections, of which 66,000 resulted in deaths.

To date, more than 73.8 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Of the figure, some 21.5 million people have received their first boosters while 3.9 million have gotten their second boosters.

• Philippines' COVID-19 deaths surpass 66,000

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