The Philippine government has signed two official deals with COVID-19 vaccine suppliers.
The first one was with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and another with the Serum Institute of India.
Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez says vaccine manufacturers want an indemnification agreement, citing the previous issue with Dengvaxia.
Galvez said that the government is also working with an agreement with Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
An indemnification agreement “holds a business or company harmless” in case of unexpected adverse events.
British-Swedish pharmaceutical AstraZeneca said that they no longer accept orders for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Presidential Adviser Joey Concepcion said that the private sector is now eyeing to secure doses of the vaccine developed by Novavax.
AstraZeneca is manufactured in Britain, while NovoVax and Moderna are both manufactured in the United States.
“Yung AstraZeneca rin wala nang ma-supply. ‘Yung 17 million, yun na yung huling order. Kinausap ko sila sa batch 3, ayaw na nila kasi talagang kulang na kulang ang supply nila sa Europe,” Concepcion said in a media briefing.
The Philippine government has secured 17 million doses of vaccines from AstraZeneca through the tripartite agreement with the national government and the local government units.
“So dito na lang sa Novavax, isang magaling na vaccine, ang pwede. Habang maaga pa, mag-order na sila,” Concepcion said.
Concepcion added that securing the NovaVax vaccine will be under the tripartite agreement.
“Sa unang briefing na dumalo ang 800 companies, marami ang interesado. Ngayon, pumapasok ang mga letters of intent na maraming gusto kumuha ng Novavax vaccines,” Concepcion added.
Novavax said that its vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India has an efficacy rate of 89.3 percent. (TDT)
