The Philippine government is negotiating with seven COVID-19 vaccine developers to ensure millions of supplies for the country, Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. reported on Wednesday.
According to Galvez, the developers are Novavax of India, AstraZeneca of UK, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna of the United States of America (USA), Janssen of Belgium, Sinovac of China, and Gamaleya of Russia. Out of the seven, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Gamaleya have so far applied for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).
Sinovac has yet to submit its application. The arrival of its doses is eyed next month.
“Successful ang negotiations natin sa lahat ng 7 na vaccine na ito (our negotiations are successful for the 7 vaccines). We will be able to purchase at least 148M doses. From 7 pharmaceutical companies, more than 100M doses have been fully secured for production,” Galvez stated.
The Office of Senator Joel Villanueva gathered information on the different vaccines’ efficacy and price range. The efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine is at 50 to 90 percent and is priced at ₱1,443 per dose. Both Pfizer and Moderna have 95 percent efficacy, but are priced at ₱962 and ₱1,779.70, respectively. Gamaleya also has a 92 percent efficacy and costs ₱481 while AstraZeneca has 62 to 90 percent efficacy and costs ₱192.
“Kaya po namin napili ang Sinovac dahil po medyo mura po ito. Pangalawa, gagamitin po ito sa Singapore, Turkey at Indonesia (We chose Sinovac because it is more affordable. Second, it will be used in Singapore, Turkey, and Indonesia),” Galvez cited.
“Kung ito po ay gagamitin ng advanced countries na katulad ng Singapore, nakita po natin na talagang ito ay effective at efficient (If this will be used by advanced countries like Singapore, we saw that this is indeed effective and efficient),” Galvez added.
Dr. Nina Gloriani of the vaccine expert panel explained that storage requirement is being looked into during the evaluation process. Among the additional parameters is the issuance of EUA by other countries.
The COVID-19 vaccine of Pfizer requires a -70 degrees temperature for its storage, the product of Moderna needs -25 to -15 degrees, while the vaccine of AstraZeneca demands 2 to -8 degrees.
The Philippines is expecting more than 40 million doses of Pfizer vaccines, 40 million doses from COVAX, 30 to 40 million doses from Novavax, 25 million doses each from Gamaleya and Sinovac, and 25 to 30 million doses from AstraZeneca.
Galvez disclosed that another 20 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines will be sealed under the tripartite agreement set to be signed on Thursday. – Report from Mark Fetalco
