By Christine Fabro
The Philippines has signed a 40-million vaccine dose supply agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech, the country’s biggest vaccine procurement so far this year.
National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Sunday (June 20) that the national government and Pfizer have concluded its negotiations to procure 40 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this year.
“[Department of Health] Secretary [Francisco] Duque [III] and I signed yesterday (June 10) the supply agreement for the biggest and most decisive deal we had for 2021,” Galvez said.
According to the vaccine czar, the deliveries of the 40 million vaccine doses will begin “after eight weeks starting August” in bulk shipments.
He added that the vaccine demand has eased up in big and rich countries, as most of them have acquired more than enough vaccines for their population and have vaccinated many of their citizens, allowing manufacturers to commit deliveries to the Philippines.
Galvez said the procurement will be financed through a multilateral arrangement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), following a direct disbursement scheme wherein payments are paid directly by the fund manager to the vaccine manufacturer.
“Through this scheme, the Filipino people can be assured that our transactions on vaccine procurement will be transparent, as the funds will not pass through the hands of any government official or agency. Wala pong dumadaan na pera sa amin,” he said.
The latest supply agreement secures for the country 113 million doses from five manufacturers: Sinovac, 26 million doses; Sputnik V, 10 million; Moderna, 20 million; Astrazeneca, 17 million; and Pfizer, 40 million doses.
Moreover, the global COVAX facility also committed to deliver a total of 44 million doses to the country this year, for a total of 157 million vaccine doses secured for the Philippines in 2021.
“The vaccines from Pfizer will significantly boost our national immunization program and will enable us to realize our goal of achieving herd immunity by yearend. This is another positive development that will give a happy and better Christmas [to] all Filipinos,” Galvez said.
Another 16 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from Novavax and Johnson & Johnson are still under negotiation. – jlo
