The Philippines Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) head, Rolando Enrique Domingo, has said that Clover Biopharmaceuticals (Clover), a biopharmaceutical company in the clinical trial stage, is seeking to conduct late-stage clinical trials in the Philippines of its COVID-19 vaccine, Reuters news agency reported on Friday.

Reportedly, Clover is the second Chinese developer to apply for Phase 3 clinical trials in the Philippines following Sinovac Biotech, which is seeking to begin trials of its vaccine as early as November 2020.

Domingo was quoted as telling reporters that Clover's COVID-19 vaccine would first be evaluated by an expert panel before it could proceed to the next stage of the approval process.

The Philippines is also evaluating COVID-19 vaccines of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen and Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute for late-stage trials.

Reportedly, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he preferred that his country source its COVID-19 vaccines from either China or Russia.

He also said he wanted the entire population vaccinated, with priority given to the poor and the country's security forces.

As of 29 October 2020, the Philippines has recorded 376,935 COVID-19 cases and 7,147 COVID-19 deaths, the second highest in the Southeast Asia region.