THE Philippines is already assured of an additional 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines developed by American firm Novavax, says vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., who has returned from a trip to India.
“Naging maganda ang resulta ng pagbiyahe natin sa India no’ng isang linggo. Doon, napirmahan na po namin ang supply agreement kung saan ang Serum Institute of India ay magsu-supply ng 30 million doses ng Novavax sa ating bansa,” Galvez said.
However, the vaccines that Galvez has referred to may not be immediately available even as he claimed that the doses, which will be manufactured in India, are likely to arrive in the third or fourth quarter of the year.
Interestingly, Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine has yet to be approved for emergency use by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Indian Ambassador to the Philippines Shambhu Kumaran earlier said the Novavax vaccines, which claims 89.3 efficacy based on trials conducted in the United Kingdom, would comprise the bulk of the country’s COVID-19 vaccine supply in the second half of the year.
He also reported that aside from Novavax, the Philippines and India are also in talks for at least eight million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Indian firm Bharat Biotech.
To date, the National Vaccine Operations Center released figures showing a total of 199,704 doses administered in the Philippines as of March 14.
He also hinted at the arrival of 1.4 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech next week. Of the 1.4 million CoronaVac jabs, 400,000 are donations while the remaining 1 million were procured by the Philippine government.