AS medicines are rapidly depleting in government health facilities, Malacañang remains calm even as a top Palace official hinted at the Department of Health (DOH) as financially capable of replenishing the supplies needed to treat patients with COVID-19.
According to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, the DOH has enough funding to replenish the dwindling supply of tocilizumab and remdesivir—two of the medicines used to treat COVID-19 patients.
Zuellig Pharma Philippines also issued a March 19 memo informing its clients that tocilizumab is out of stock.
“We will get in touch with DOH because they have the authority under the Bayanihan 1 and 2 laws to directly import products without passing thru the Government Procurement Act when it comes to securing support for drugs and other medicines that we need in our COVID-19 response,” Roque said.
The Palace spokesperson’s comments were in apparent reference to the measures which allowed the Executive department to realign P275 billion of the national budget to address the COVID-19 pandemic (Bayanihan 1) and the P165 billion stimulus package (Bayanihan 2) designed to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Inaasahan natin na ‘yung pinabilis na procurement process ang magiging lunas sa kakulangan ng ilang mga gamot na kinakailangan natin para gamutin ‘yung nagkakasakit ng COVID-19,” he added.
Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, for his part, said that supplies required by various government health facilities will be arriving within the month.