Philippine gov't, private firms secure 17M doses of AstraZeneca vaccine
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:38 p.m.) — The Philippine government and private firms signed a deal with AstraZeneca Thursday for a total of 17 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine as officials scramble to lock in supplies to inoculate at least 50 million Filipinos this year.
The endeavor was made possible through the efforts of the private sector and local government units.
The total doses include the 2.6 million shots secured by over 30 companies and donated to the government in November last year.
For the second batch, around 300 companies and 39 local government units pitched in for the procurement of COVID-19 jabs from the British-Swedish drugmaker, which are expected to arrive in the country this year, Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said.
“We have no doubt this partnership will enable us to save more than 8 million lives from the menace of the virus,” said Carlito Galvez Jr., the former military general in charge of the government’s vaccine procurement effort.
The vaccine developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm in conjunction with Oxford University is found to be 70% effective on average, well below the 95% reported for the COVID-19 jabs from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
But AstraZeneca shots only need to be stored at around 2°C, which is the standard temperature that is within the existing cold chain system in the country. The government is eyeing to distribute AstraZeneca vaccines in far-flung areas along with those that do not require sub-arctic temperatures for storage.
Local regulators are still reviewing the application of AstraZeneca for the emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine, which is needed before rollout.
Aside from AstraZeneca, the government also secured 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by US-based Novavax and Serum Institute of India, and 25 million shots from China's Sinovac.
The Philippines aims to vaccinate 50 to 70 million Filipinos against COVID-19 in 2021 alone, but it depends on the global supply, which had been mostly procured by wealthy nations.
With nearly 493,000 COVID-19 cases, the Philippines has the second worst COVID-19 outbreak in Southeast Asia.
The City Health Office of Lipa City reported on Sunday that 6,596 people have already received their jabs of Sinovac and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines since the inoculation started two months ago.
The number represents 10% of the total 65,377 persons who registered to be scheduled for COVID vaccination.
Lipa City has a total population of 389,836 but not everyone registered for the vaccination. The city government also said 149,881 residents are aged 18 and below and currently “not qualified” for vaccination. — The Filipino Connection/Marlon Luistro
British-Swedish pharmaceutical AstraZeneca has applied for emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines.
Philippine Food and Drug Administration Director General Eric Domingo confirms this in an interview with CNN Philippines.
AstraZeneca, along with its partner Oxford University in England, has so far made 50 million doses of its vaccine. In November, the British laboratory announced that its vaccine was on average 70% effective.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines terminates its investigation into the unregulated Sinopharm vaccination of President Rodrigo Duterte's security detail following the chief executive's order not to cooperate with the probe.
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