Six months seen as ‘best case’ for rapid approval of new ASF vaccines

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is working to expedite the approval of candidate vaccines for African Swine Fever (ASF), with the process expected to take six months in the best-case scenario.

“Due to the urgency of the situation, we are consulting with vets and other experts in this field on how to shorten the process of approval and trials. So, my best case is six months from now,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. told reporters on Wednesday.

Only the AVAC ASF Live vaccine from Vietnam has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a limited government-controlled rollout. It has issued a Certificate of Product Registration for AVAC, valid for two years and subject to monitoring and annual evaluation.

On Monday, the FDA said that there were four ASF vaccine manufactures undergoing clinical trials. The suppliers are from Thailand, the US, and Vietnam.

“I hope one or two more (vaccine manufacturers) get approval,” he added.

Earlier, the FDA and the Bureau of Animal Industry signed a memorandum of agreement to fast-track the approval of animal vaccines.

In the initial wave of inoculations, the DA said it expects to deploy 10,000 doses by the end of September to address the outbreak in Batangas province.

The DA allocated P350 million to procure 600,000 doses for hog farmers initially targeted. The rollout started on Aug. 30 in Lobo, Batangas.

Mr. Laurel said that 150,000 doses from the second batch of vaccines should be awarded by October.

The DA said the vaccination rollout will be expanded to La Union, Quezon, Mindoro, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Cebu.

“By Oct. 10, the (vaccine) will be available for the DA to roll out,” he added.

There were 109 municipalities in 31 provinces that had active cases of ASF, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry as of Sept. 6.

ASF was first detected in the Philippines in 2019. — Adrian H. Halili