THE government is keen on the idea of sealing procurement deals for COVID-19 vaccines, but would rather prefer that potential vaccines be tested first in the Philippines to ensure its potency among Filipinos.
In a radio interview, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez said that they are looking into building a portfolio of potential vaccines against the novel coronavirus, even as he claimed that they have in fact been in advanced talks with various pharmaceutical companies over holding clinical trials of their experimental vaccines in the country.
“Ang gagawin natin is portfolio po. Kasi alam po natin there’s still uncertainties on the efficacy and safety [of the vaccines],” he said.
The Philippine government, he added, is currently negotiating with China’s Sinovac, Russia’s state-run Gamaleya Institute and Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceuticals arm Janssen.
Galvez said the Philippines is also set to sign a confidential agreement for a possible vaccine supply deal with US drug maker Pfizer, which recently reported its vaccine was 95 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 while AstraZeneca’s vaccine developed with the University of Oxford showed an average 70-percent efficacy.
In a related development, the Philippines signed a deal with AstraZeneca for the purchase of 2 million possible coronavirus vaccines as part of the private sector’s initiative to boost the country’s fight against the disease.
The deal however would be at no cost to the government even as he claimed that private firms such as San Miguel, Aboitiz, Ayala, JG Summit Holdings and Megaworld will pay the vaccines, of which half will be donated to the government.
The other half will be used to inoculate the private sector’s employees, said Galvez. The private firms will prioritize those considered poor such as laborers, truck drivers, and security guards, he added.
Presidential adviser on entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion had said they were looking into procuring more vaccines of up to 3 million doses.
Amid fears the vaccines are rushed and may carry potential side effects, Galvez, who also serves as the pandemic response chief implementer, assured the public the government would not be cutting corners to solve the pandemic.
He said the vaccines would be first administered en masse to their country of origin.
The deadly virus from Wuhan, China has so far infected more than 426,000 Filipinos.