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Medilines renews distribution partnership with Siemens Healthineers

MEDILINES Distributors, Inc. renewed its partnership with Siemens Healthineers, extending by three more years the listed trading firm’s sale and distribution of diagnostic imaging devices and specialized molecular imaging equipment.

“Our partnership with Siemens Healthineers started in 2016 and is now on its third renewal. This reflects Siemens’ confidence in Medilines’ established name in the Philippine healthcare industry, market dominance, and proven expertise in providing high quality medical devices to hospitals nationwide,” Medilines Chairman Virgilio B. Villar said in a media release.

The contract involves the sale and distribution of Siemens Healthineers’ flagship division, which includes products such as CT scans, MRIs, x-rays, and PET/CTs.

Medilines has also sold and distributed equipment from Varian, which was acquired by Siemens Healthineers in April.

Varian is an American company specializing in cancer care technologies, such as the linear accelerator, which is a high-tech machine used for radiation treatments for cancer patients.

According to the press release, Medilines and Siemens Healthineers sold majority of the current installations of linear accelerators and imaging systems for radiation therapy in the Philippines.

“Medilines is currently installing more linear accelerators in Cebu, Dagupan and Iloilo, and is also preparing to install in Philippine General Hospital. The company is also about to finish an installation in Sacred Heart Medical Center in Pampanga, one of the biggest privately-owned cancer centers in Central Luzon,” the company said in a statement.

“In the last five years, Medilines has sold more than 10 units of linear accelerators nationwide. To date, Medilines holds the title of distributor with the most number of installations of linear accelerators in the Philippines,” it added.

In 2020, Medilines claims to have represented 90% of the market share in the distribution of cancer therapy equipment in the country.

“[We] expect to retain dominance in this growing category, which contributes around P1 billion in sales every year in the past years, as [we] are set to install at least five more linear accelerators this year. With these, [we] expect to grow this segment by more than 20% versus last year,” the company added.

On Tuesday, Medilines shares dropped three centavos or 2.54% to P1.15 each. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson

Cold-case investigation names surprise suspect in Anne Frank’s betrayal

ANNE FRANK — EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/ANNE FRANK HOUSE, AMSTERDAM

AMSTERDAM — A six-year cold case investigation into the betrayal of Anne Frank has identified a surprising suspect in the mystery of how the Nazis found the hiding place of the famous diarist in 1944.

Anne and seven other Jews were discovered by the Nazis on Aug. 4 of that year, after they had hid for nearly two years in a secret annex above a canal-side warehouse in Amsterdam. All were deported and Anne died in the Bergen Belsen camp at age 15.

A team that included retired US FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and around 20 historians, criminologists, and data specialists identified a relatively unknown figure, Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh, as a leading suspect in revealing the hideout.

Some other experts emphasized that the evidence against him was not conclusive.

Investigating team member Pieter van Twisk said the crucial piece of new evidence was an unsigned note to Anne’s father Otto found in an old post-war investigation dossier, specifically naming Mr. Van den Bergh and alleging he passed on the information.

The note said Mr. Van den Bergh had access to addresses where Jews were hiding as a member of Amsterdam’s wartime Jewish Council and had passed lists of such addresses to the Nazis to save his own family.

Mr. Van Twisk said only four out of initial 32 names remained following the research, with Mr. Van den Bergh the lead suspect.

Investigators confirmed that Otto, the only member of the family to survive the war, was aware of the note but chose never to speak of it publicly.

Mr. Van Twisk speculated that Frank’s reasons to remain silent about the allegation were likely that he could not be sure it was true, that he would not want information to become public that could feed further anti-Semitism, and that he would not want Mr. Van den Bergh’s three daughters to be blamed for something their father might have done.

Otto “had been in Auschwitz,” Mr. Van Twisk said. “He knew that people in difficult situations sometimes do things that cannot be morally justified.”

While other members of the Jewish Council were deported in 1943, Mr. Van den Bergh was able to remain in the Netherlands. He died in 1950.

Historian Erik Somers of the Dutch NIOD institute for war, holocaust and genocide studies praised the extensive investigation, but was skeptical of its conclusion.

He questioned the centrality of the anonymous note in the arguments for Mr. Van den Bergh’s responsibility and said the team made assumptions about wartime Amsterdam Jewish institutions that are not supported by other historical research.

According to Mr. Somers there are many possible reasons Mr. Van den Bergh was never deported as “he was a very influential man.”

Miep Gies, one of the family’s helpers, kept Anne’s diary safe until Otto returned and first published it in 1947. It has since been translated into 60 languages and captured the imagination of millions of readers worldwide.

The Anne Frank House Foundation was not involved in the cold case investigation but shared information from its archives to assist.

Director Ronald Leopold said the research had “generated important new information and a fascinating hypothesis that merits further research.”

Using modern research techniques, a master database was compiled with lists of Dutch collaborators, informants, historic documents, police records, and prior research to uncover new leads.

Dozens of scenarios and locations of suspects were visualized on a map to identify a betrayer, based on knowledge of the hiding place, motive and opportunity.

The findings of the new research will be published in a book by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan, The Betrayal of Anne Frank, which will be released on Tuesday.

The director of Dutch Jewish organization CIDI which combats anti-Semitism told Reuters she hoped the book would provide insight into the war-time circumstances of Amsterdam’s Jewish population.

“If this turns into ‘the Jews did it’ that would be unfortunate. The Nazis were ultimately responsible,” Hanna Luden of CIDI said. — Reuters

BSP extends effectivity of regulatory relief measures

THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) has further extended the effectivity of relief measures for financial institutions to sustain lending recovery and support the economy amid the pandemic.

Memorandum No. M-2022-024 signed by BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier said the extension for the implementation of the measures was approved by the Monetary Board on Jan. 13.

“[This will]…sustain momentum of bank lending and ensure continued access to financial services by the public, including vulnerable sectors of the economy,” the memorandum said.

The reduction of the credit risk weight for pandemic-hit micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises to 50% will be effective until the end of 2022. The provisions originally in Memorandum No. M-2020-034 were supposed to expire by the end of 2021.

The minimum liquidity ratio (MLR) for thrift, rural, and cooperative banks of 16% is also effective for another year and will expire by the end of 2022. The MLR was temporarily cut from 20% originally in April 2020 due to the pandemic.

The effectivity of the 30% single borrowers’ limit to encourage lending was likewise extended to the end of this year.

Regulatory relief for pawnshops through bringing the allowed percentage of their total borrowings to 70% from 50% will also be in effect until Dec. 31.

Separately, the BSP through Memorandum No. M-2022-005 also outlined the extension of operational relief measures for financial institutions. This will help ensure continued delivery of services and protect the health of employees and clients as the pandemic continues.

For one, financial institutions will not be required to notify the BSP in case of temporary closure or changes in their banking days and hours until the end of the year.

The central bank is also allowing lenders to submit until June any supervisory and notification requirements that will fall due in the first quarter.

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno has said they will be “outcome-based” and “not calendar-based” in their approach to gradually unwinding the policy measures it implemented due to the pandemic.

Mr. Diokno last week said in a Bloomberg interview that the BSP is unlikely to hike benchmark rates in the first half of this year as it waits for the economic recovery to become entrenched and unemployment to fall.

The Philippines’ key interest rate has been at a record low 2% for more than a year, withstanding mounting inflation in 2021. — L.W.T. Noble

Pandemic highlights lack of psychosocial support for seafarers — study

REUTERS

By Patricia B. Mirasol 

RESEARCHERS from the University of the Philippines Visayas found that Filipino merchant seafarers working in internationally flagged vessels this pandemic lack psychosocial support.  

Merchant seafaring remains to be a socially vulnerable occupation due to its social isolation, hazardous living environment, and precarious work arrangement, said Sanley S. Abila, the study’s main author, in a presentation at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) Symposium on Dec. 17.  

Seafarers typically describe the ship they work in as “mobile prisons,” he added.   

The pilot study, titled Left at sea and on land: COVID-19 and Filipino seafarers working in internationally flagged merchant ships, found a low vaccination prevalence (24.3%) among its respondents. It also found a majority did not have an increase in their food (64.7%), recreational (72.2%), and internet Wi-Fi allowances (46.4%) while working at sea.   

Filipinos training to be seafarers are aware of the socially isolated nature of seafaring, Mr. Abila told BusinessWorld in an e-mail.   

“This is highly likely discussed in maritime colleges and/or experienced by [them] especially during their mandated sea-time training as cadets,” he said. “Also, a lot of these cadets and seafarers are also sons or daughters of current/former seafarers… they are likely to be aware of the occupational culture of seafaring from the stories and ‘examples’ of their seafaring family members.”  

COVID-19 IMPLICATIONS
A separate, 2021 study co-authored by Mr. Abila and published in International Maritime Health found there was a dearth of published research on seafarers’ mental health. Most reports generated in the past decade are in relation to the 2009–2012 maritime piracy crisis.  

A World Maritime University study on seafarers’ pandemic experience, however, suggests that the global crisis has only amplified the occupation’s social vulnerabilities. Pauksztat et al. found that among its Filipino respondents, 15.4% expressed being depressed almost daily, 21.9% claimed being anxious almost daily, with 73.3% saying they were mentally exhausted.  

The most serious issue tied to a seafarer’s happiness is shore leave, according to the Quarter 3 edition of the 2021 Seafarers Happiness Index. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has lengthened stays on board due to crew change difficulties and border closures, and the frustration of not having access to any shore leave has become the tipping point for some seafarers who are now looking for a way out of the maritime industry.   

Vaccination is also a point of concern.  

“In our [Left at sea and on land] study, a good percentage of our Filipino seafarer respondents are actually very welcoming of vaccination,” Mr. Abila told BusinessWorld. The brand of the vaccine is important though, because the perceived low efficacy of some brands have compelled certain countries not to let in individuals vaccinated with them.  

SAFEGUARDING WELL-BEING 
Overtime work is another reality that persists at sea, the Left at sea and on land study gathered. Sixty-six percent of its respondents said they have had no reduction in overtime work hours.  

Over half of the seafarer respondents, Mr. Abila said, work for FOCs (or Flags of Convenience). An FOC refers to the registration of a ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship’s owners.  

“FOCs offer low taxation to ship owners,” he told the symposium audience. “Most have lower labor, health, and safety standards for seafarers — especially international seafarers.”  

According to Mr. Abila, there are maritime organizations looking after the welfare of international seafarers, including charitable organizations based on international ports, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).   

“There are also a number of recommendations intended to improve seafarers’ living and working conditions,” he added, noting the ones from the IMO and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF), an independent global charity that supports research and innovation.  

IMO’s April 2021 Recommended Framework of Protocols recognizes the ill impacts of extended service periods on board among crew members. It recommends, among others, granting seafarers exemptions from travel restrictions, in order to facilitate their joining or leaving ships.  

LRF, meanwhile, said in an Oct. 2021 news article that “responsible companies should challenge” terms like no crew-change clauses on the grounds of seafarer wellbeing.   

LRF funded the Left at sea and on land study presented at the HHI Symposium. A final report that includes the statistical relationships between psychosocial interventions and variables such as type of contract, age, and rank will be available to the public at the end of January.

Host Vietnam will implement ‘no vaccine, no entry’ in SEAG

PSC COMMISSIONER RAMON FERNANDEZ

HOST Vietnam will implement a “no vaccine, no entry” policy in the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) slated for May 12-25 in Hanoi.

“All delegation members, not just athletes and coaches, must have at least two doses of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccines with the second dose taken at least 14 days prior to the departure,” said Ramon Fernandez, a Philippine Sports Commission board member and the country’s chef de mission right on their first chef de mission online meeting on Tuesday.

The vaccine requirement was apart from the negative RT-PCR test result for each delegation member must posses to be allowed entry and participation.

For those recently afflicted with COVID-19, one must also present a certificate or documentation of recovery.

Philippine Olympic Committee President Abraham Tolentino, for his part, said the host nation has reaffirmed in the same meeting the staging of the 11-nation biennial conclave.

“It’s certainly a go,” said Mr. Tolentino. “Pre-Games formalities and timelines were presented, as well as soft copies of the Games manual were distributed to the members.”

With the entry by numbers already done last Jan. 12, the congressman from Tagaytay said Hanoi set a Feb. 12 distribution date and March 12 deadline for the submission of accreditation forms.

The deadline for the submission of entries by names is set for March 12, after which the chefs de mission will meet again, possibly face-to-face if conditions improve, on March 18.

Mr. Tolentino clarified that the country has fielded in 627 athletes, and not 626 as earlier reported, in 39 of the 40 sports calendared in Hanoi. — Joey Villar

Aboitiz Construction to build local storage for grains firm

ABOITIZ Construction, Inc. said it plans to begin the construction of local storage for Mariveles Grains Corp. to help stabilize the logistics of grain importation.

According to a press release on Tuesday, it started the early stages of pier rehabilitation and was awarded the threshold facilities located in Mariveles, Bataan.

“Through this project, we aim to help in improving the logistics of grain products and contribute to our local food industry. This project also highlights our expertise in building infrastructures that involve different areas of civil works,” Aboitiz Construction Vice-President for Business Development Levi B. Agoncillo said in a statement.

The project started in November 2021 and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.

Aboitiz Construction said it is planning to prolong the stability of the piers, which is the main structure in the loading and unloading of grain products in the area.

Mariveles Grains operates a grain and commodities terminal that handles the storage and distribution of imported bulk grains.

The terminal can handle deliveries from Panamax vessels at a rate of 8,000 to 10,000 metric tons (MT) per day.

The grains provider is one of the subsidiaries of La Filipina Uy Gongco Corp., a livestock and agribusiness company. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson

Four times Shakespeare has inspired stories about robots and AI

Star Trek: The Next Generation Screencaps

SCIENCE fiction is a genre very much associated with technological marvels, innovations, and visions of the future. So it may be surprising to find so many of its writers are drawn to Shakespeare — he’s a figure associated with tradition and the past.

Sometimes his plays are reworked in a science fiction setting. The 1956 film Forbidden Planet is just one of many variations on a “Tempest in space” theme. Sometimes the playwright appears as a character caught up in a time travel adventure. The Dr. Who episode “The Shakespeare Code” is a well-known example. Here the Doctor praises Shakespeare’s genius, describing him as “the most human human.”

I’ve been exploring this topic in my recent book on Shakespeare and Science Fiction. Here are just a few of my favorite examples of how science fiction has embraced — and transformed — Shakespeare.

In Esther Friesner’s humorous 1994 short story Titus! an artificial intelligence (AI) simulation of Shakespeare prevents a disastrous musical comedy version of Shakespeare’s goriest tragedy, Titus Andronicus, from alienating a cultured pangalactic federation through its sheer bad taste.

It was a strange example of life imitating art. At about the same time Friesner dreamed up her delightfully appalling take on Titus Andronicus, Steve Bannon, later to become Donald Trump’s chief political strategist, co-scripted an adaptation of the play set in space featuring scenes of ectoplasmic sex.

Science fiction writers often offer various new twists on the Shakespeare question of whether the bard wrote all his plays. Was he one man from Stratford-upon-Avon?

Whereas conventional candidates like Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford have been put forward by some, science fiction proposes more imaginative solutions, including the claim that the playwright was really a Klingon.

In Jack Oakley’s 1994 story The Tragedy of KL, a computer program is designed to establish the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays once and for all. The program starts to become self-aware and decides to leave its day-to-day tasks to its subordinates. It soon becomes clear that the program is in fact re-enacting King Lear — the play in which a king attempts to retire from ruling his kingdom, with disastrous consequences. One rebellious piece of code takes on the role of Lear’s loving but stubborn daughter Cordelia. Eventually, the program implodes — and its makers never suspect that anything more mysterious than a virus was at work.

Star Trek is one of science fiction’s richest sources of Shakespeare allusions. In the 1994 episode “Emergence,” android Lieutenant Commander Data is performing the role of exiled magician Prospero from The Tempest on the holodeck. Just as he quotes Prospero’s mysterious claim that he has brought the dead to life, the Enterprise’s voyage is disrupted by an unexpected storm.

The Tempest also begins with a ship being driven off course by a (magical) storm, and a curious connection is implied between Data’s performance and the discovery of a strange new being on the ship, an emerging artificial consciousness.

Nick O’Donohoe’s novel Too, Too Solid Flesh focuses on a robot theater troupe programmed to play Hamlet to perfection for the amusement of a near-future New York. When their inventor (the aptly named Dr. Capek) dies, the robot who plays Hamlet determines to find out the truth and —  just like Shakespeare’s original prince — avenge the murder of his creator.

This is just one example of a strange apparent association between Hamlet and robots. Probably the earliest example is WS Gilbert’s play The Mountebanks (1892), which features a sentient Hamlet and Ophelia as an automata. More recent examples include Louise LePage’s Machine-Hamlet, a short film in which a robot called Baxter plays the Dane.

Why does Hamlet — apparently one of Shakespeare’s most three-dimensional characters — invite so many robotic reinventions? Is there something almost computer-like about the character’s phenomenally quick intelligence? He strikes many readers as remarkably “real,” seeming to jump off the page (or stage), aware that he is trapped there as well as in the Danish court. Perhaps it’s that sense of a struggle to escape which best explains his odd affinity with robots. The illusion of self-awareness that Shakespeare creates serves to align the prince with the many science-fictional androids who seek to escape their confines and achieve sentience.

 

Sarah Annes Brown is a Professor of English Literature, Anglia Ruskin University.

Digital payments to ease inflation in long term, says BSP chief

THE CENTRAL BANK’S goal to increase the use of digital payments could help slow inflation in the long term due to cost reduction, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said.

“Digitalization is one of the huge changes that will have an effect in lowering inflation in the long run,” Mr. Diokno said at an online engagement with the Tuesday Club.

The BSP said technological advancements could help make prices lower and stable in the long term, aside from monetary and fiscal policies.

“By making payments and transactions more convenient, digitalization reduces the costs of production and distribution for businesses,” it said.

For the consumer, digitalization is expected to improve the ease of getting information on products and services.

“These forces encourage competition among enterprises to capture or maintain market share, which in turn helps keep consumer prices low and stable,” the BSP said.

Inflation stood at 4.5% in 2021, above the 2-4% target of the central bank and faster than the 2.6% in 2020. Higher meat costs as well as the uptick in global oil prices caused faster increases in the past months.

This year, the central bank expects inflation to ease to 3.4% and then to slow further to 3.2% in 2023.

Digital payments comprised 20.1% of total transactions in terms of value in 2020.

By 2023, the central bank wants digital payments to make up 50% of all transactions both in terms of value and volume. — LWTN

Textile center to halve time, money needed to test PPE

REwear face masks. DoST-PTRI 

THE scramble for personal protective equipment (PPE) and face masks early in the pandemic has led to the opening of a Medical Textile Testing Center under the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Textile Research Institute (DoST-PTRI) in Taguig City. 

In an event held late December, the PTRI discussed the opening of the new institute and gave a virtual tour of its laboratories. “In the early days of the pandemic, we were faced with a massive global shortage of personal protective equipment,” said Celia Elumba, director of the DoST-PTRI. “This caught many off-guard, and in particular, exposed our healthcare workers to more risk than was necessary in the performance of their jobs to handle COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) cases.” 

PTRI resorted to submitting samples of face masks to foreign laboratories such as the South India Textile Research Association, because there was no local capability to test and evaluate the face masks based on globally recognized standards, according to Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña.  

The masks Mr. De la Peña referred to were the PTRI-developed REwear face masks, which were cloth masks that were washable, re-wearable, and reusable.  

The tests were more expensive when done abroad; Ms. Elumba noted that it cost P220,000 for the masks to be tested overseas, not including logistics.  

The new facility by the DoST-PTRI aims to halve the time and money needed to test medical equipment. Ms. Elumba noted that testing equipment locally could be completed in two to three weeks compared to four to six weeks overseas. 

By April, the facility will be capable of conducting four of the five textile tests performed abroad. These include barrier testing, durability, toxicity, and construction for protective clothing; and tests for medical face masks, including bacterial filtration, differential pressure, synthetic blood penetration, particle filtration, absorbency, and permeability, among others.  

The Medical Textile Testing Center may also be used for other purposes in the future. “We can expand it even more to other related industries,” said Donna Uldo, head chemist and deputy technical manager for PTRI Testing Services. This includes testing for health and hygiene products, occupational safety products, industrial textiles, and pollution safety products. 

The idea of a facility for testing textiles for medical use was floated as early as 2016. The aim then was different: it was to test hygienic products such as cotton swabs and diapers. — Joseph L. Garcia

Alex Eala scores back-to-back wins in qualifying stage

FILIPINO TENNIS ACE ALEX EALA — BW FILE PHOTO

ALEX M. Eala moved closer to barging into the main draw of the W25 Manacor after registering back-to-back wins in the qualifying phase at the Rafael Nadal Academy (RNA) in Spain.

Playing in her first event this year, the Filipina ace made short work of Slovenia’s Ella Hojnik, 6-1, 6-1, over the weekend before beating Mia Chudejová of Slovakia with a gritty 7-6, 6-3 victory late on Monday night.

Ms. Eala was to play France’s Alice Rame in the finale for a shot at entering the main draw, where a number of top-400 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) players are already seeded.

Ranked No. 526 in the latest WTA list this week, Ms. Eala looms as a heavy underdog against the 24-year-old French hotshot listed at No. 375 in the world rankings.

Ms. Rame proved that caliber with easy wins over Germany’s Stella Jurina, 6-2, 6-2, and Italy’s Margherita Viglietti, 6-0, 6-0. But the 16-year-old Ms. Eala is unfazed by the challenge with a mission to make a run for her second title in the women’s professional circuit.

Ms. Eala last year ruled the W15 Manacor for her breakthrough pro championship also held in RNA where she is a scholar. — John Bryan Ulanday

China Telecom’s PHL venture wants to double subscribers

JACKSON DAVID/UNSPLASH

CHINA Telecommunications Corp.’s Philippine venture may double its subscribers this year to reach a target to secure a third of the nation’s communications market as early as 2024.

Subscribers of DITO Telecommunity Corp., which began operations in March, may climb to about 10 million from 5.3 million at the end of last year as the company expands network coverage, according to majority stakeholder DITO CME Holdings Corp.

The company predicts it can attract customers to its solely 4G and 5G network, and wants to avoid getting into a price war with larger domestic rivals Globe Telecom, Inc. and PLDT, Inc., DITO CME President Eric Alberto said in an interview.

“Everyone who needs a mobile phone already has one,” Mr. Alberto said. “We’re just upgrading to a more sophisticated digital capability.”

The company reaffirmed a goal to reach 30% market share, with Mr. Alberto forecasting that could be achieved in 2024 when its network coverage rises to more than 80% of the population from 52.8% last year.

DITO CME, which is undergoing a stock rights offer, is “down to the final stretch” of securing long-term credit to fund a $5-billion five-year investment commitment to build its network, Joseph John Ong, chief finance officer, said.

The company and China Telecom, which holds 40% of DITO Telecommunity, will guarantee the debt based on their stakes in the unit.

The telecom venture may take three to five years to be profitable, Mr. Alberto said. Other units such as marketing firm Global Acuity and analytics solutions provider Unalytics may take less time to make significant earnings contributions compared to rival telecoms’ businesses, he said. — Bloomberg

A new level of vaccine innovation

FREEPIK

With the widespread impact of the various variants of concern, including Omicron, the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to assess the strain composition of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, and urges vaccine manufacturers to generate data on the breadth and magnitude of immune response for monovalent and multivalent vaccines. 

In an interim statement released last week, the WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition said that COVID-19 vaccines that have high impact on prevention of infection and transmission as well as the prevention of severe disease and death are needed and should be developed. The global health agency added that until such vaccines are available, “the composition of current COVID-19 vaccines may need to be updated to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines continue to provide WHO-level recommended levels of protection against the various variants of concern.” 

Since the pandemic began, the WHO has named five variants of concern namely Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron. 

Member companies of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) are at the forefront of the global effort to develop safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine candidates of AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Pfizer (co-developed with BioNTech) were among the first to receive emergency use authorization (EUA) from regulatory authorities. 

With extensive knowledge on earlier variants, the industry is once again scanning their libraries of vaccines and treatments to determine if they could provide protection against Omicron. Vaccine developers have earlier announced efforts to specifically target Omicron. 

Most recent to announce its preliminary analysis was AstraZeneca which said that data from an ongoing trial showed increased antibody response against Delta, Alpha, and Gamma variants following a third dose of its vaccine. Another analysis of samples from the trial also showed higher antibody response to the Omicron variant. 

Johnson & Johnson, on Jan. 6, announced that its vaccine demonstrated durable protection against breakthrough infection, hospitalization, and admission in the Intensive Care Unit for up to six months. Preliminary data from another study also demonstrated 85% effectiveness for the homologous booster shot of Johnson & Johnson against COVID-19 related hospitalization in South Africa where Omicron was dominant. 

On Jan. 3, Pfizer-BioNTech also said that the US Food and Drug Administration expanded the EUA of a booster dose of its vaccine to include individuals 12 years old and older. It added that the reduction of time between the primary series from six months to five months is supported by real-world data from the Ministry of Health of Israel. 

On Dec. 20, 2021, Moderna said that its currently authorized booster increased neutralizing antibody levels against Omicron approximately 37-fold compared to pre-boost levels. 

Combined with public health and social measures such as wearing masks, hand hygiene, and social distancing, among others, these COVID-19 vaccines have been crucial in preventing severe sickness and deaths, and protecting the health system. 

On top of scaling up manufacturing to ensure equitable access to first-generation COVID-19 vaccines around the world, the research-based biopharmaceutical industry is working on new and next-generation vaccine candidates that could help address the pandemic. Vaccines are considered “next-generation” if these demonstrate an incremental improvement on the first-generation COVID-19 vaccines in terms of efficacy, affordability, and/or program feasibility (ease by which the vaccines are delivered into the arms of people around the world). 

Toward this end, vaccine manufacturers are working on the development of protein-based vaccines for COVID-19, and are exploring new or different adjuvants as well as new components for stronger immune protection against SARS-CoV-2. 

The challenge to the biopharmaceutical industry continues as the world seeks to end the pandemic at the soonest possible time. The approaches and options outlined by the WHO require consideration of continued development of a monovalent vaccine that elicits an immune response against the predominant circulating variant. Another option, the WHO said, is the development of a multivalent vaccine containing antigens from different variants of concern. The ultimate challenge is the development of a pan SARS-CoV-2 vaccine that would be variant-proof. 

The development of any such vaccines is not an easy task, and one which requires a new level of innovation and collaboration of the global scientific community. 

  

Teodoro B. Padilla is the executive director of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP), which represents the biopharmaceutical medicines and vaccines industry in the country. Its members are at the forefront of research and development efforts for COVID-19 and other diseases that affect Filipinos.

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