By ANSBERT B. JOAQUIN and RUFFIE CRUZ

OLONGAPO CITY  (April 22) — A Filipino-owned company based in the Subic Bay Freeport has accepted President Rodrigo Duterte’s challenge to produce a cure for the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

As announced by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, the President will give a P10-million reward to any person who will discover a vaccine against the coronavirus disease. (Duterte had since increased the reward to P50 million. – Ed)

But Health for Life Wellness, Inc. (HFW) said in a statement that it will waive the amount in favor of soldiers and medical frontliners, if its anti-viral combination drug Prodex-B is proven to be an effective and safe treatment for Covid-19.

“P5 million [will be donated] to the families of our 11 slain soldiers and the 14 wounded in the ambush in Patikul, Sulu,” HFW said.

“The balance of the reward will go to the families of the health workers who have heroically perished from this global pandemic with their boots on,” it added.

The Department of Health confirmed that 766 doctors and nurses have been infected with Covid-19 as of Tuesday (April 21).

“Our only appeal is to expedite our registration before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by relaxing the rules under Administrative Order 20160003, Guidelines on the Unified Licensing Requirements and Procedures of FDA,” HFW added.

“[We also appeal to relax the rules in] the conduct of clinical trials for this combination drug under investigation,” it added.

This is also the content of HFW’s online petition in Change.org entitled “An Appeal to Department of Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III” which it claimed was ”unjustly and abruptly” taken down on April 1.

The petition, urging the government to support the immediate testing of Prodex-B, was posted online as early as March 25. It garnered a total of 15,000 petitioners.

Prodex-B is said to be a cocktail of procaine and dexmethasone with Vitamin B, according to HFW president John Carlos delos Reyes, a former Olongapo City councilor.

Moreover, Prodex-B has been the subject of a research paper entitled “In Vitro Anti-dengue Virus Activity of a Customized Drug Cocktail” conducted by the Molecular Immunology Laboratory for Research Education and Training (MILRET) at St. Luke’s Medical Center.

St. Luke’s Medical Center’s Research and Biotechnolgy Group said that Prodex-B showed “significant reduction in the virus quantity after treatment with the drug cocktail.”

Another paper by Drs. Elbourakadi, Najoua and Ethan W. Taylor of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2011 revealed the same promising results.

The study entitled “A Novel Method for the Selective Elimination of HIV Infected Cells: Dexamethasone and Procaine as a Combination Therapy Prototype” said Prodex B “have different mechanisms of action, but when combined, produce a synergistic effect with a natural alcohol antagonistic to the virus.”

Another local anti-viral drug, the Fabunan Anti-Viral Injection (FAI) produced by a family of doctors in San Marcelino, Zambales, has also been touted as effective against Covid-19.

However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had clarified that both Prodex-B and FAI “are still unregistered and hence cannot be sold to the public.”

The FDA also said that the effectiveness of both drugs “has yet to be proven”.