Philippines signs indemnity agreement with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has signed Indemnification Agreements with drugmakers Pfizer and AstraZeneca under the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez disclosed Wednesday.
Once signed, an indemnification agreement "holds a business or company harmless" in case of unexpected adverse events.
Speaking at the Laging Handa briefing Wednesday, Galvez, who also serves as the chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said that manufacturers were concerned with the country's previous experiences with the Dengvaxia vaccine.
"All of the manufacturers, they are requiring an indemnity agreement in all the contracts we're signing. That's included there, non-disclosure and indemnity," the country's vaccination chief said in mixed Filipino and English.
"So for all of the vaccines, not just the COVAX, the indemnification clause is really required...They're still contemplating what the final mutual agreement will be [with regards to] indemnification," he also said, adding that these negotiations were the source of the latest delay.
Galvez added that the Philippines was talking to other foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, China, Russia, India for faster delivery of COVID-19 vaccines
Earlier, the Food and Drug Administration also disclosed that the national government is establishing a similar indemnity fund for those who will be inoculated primarily because the COVID-19 vaccines are still underdeveloped.
FDA chief Eric Domingo added that in exchange for this, the vaccine companies have asked to be free of responsibility for adverse reactions or side effects.
READ: How the Dengvaxia scare helped erode decades of public trust in vaccines
A 2018 study of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine noted that the country’s “highly-politicized response” to the reported risks posed by Dengvaxia has eroded overall public trust in immunization.
As of the health department's latest case bulletin issued Tuesday afternoon, exactly 552,246 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the country since the virus first emerged in December 2019.
"From what we see, our agreement with Pfizer will most likely push through," Galvez also said when asked what would happen if the US drugmaker did not sign the indemnity agreement.
He also assured the public that the deal was not endangered by the latest discussions on indemnification.
— Franco Luna with a report from The STAR
The national government has so far secured two official deals for COVID-19 vaccine supplies in the Philippines, one with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and another with the Serum Institute of India.
Watch this space for bite-sized developments on the vaccines in the Philippines. (Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash)
Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire says the general population may now get their second booster jab.
"We're just waiting for the release of implementing guidelines, then we'll start rolling out our second booster for the general population," she says. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
Amid questions on vaccines being administered, the Department of Health assures the public all doses are safe and effective as the “process of extending shelf life goes through thorough stability studies.”
“The government ensures that every vaccine that is injected with an extended shelf life has gone through studies, and is still safe and effective against COVID-19,” it adds.
Government must increase vaccination capacity across the Philippines in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant of the corona virus, Sen. Risa Hontiveros says.
She says local government units and the private sector can work together to put up more vaccination centers and deploy more vaccination teams to get more people inoculated against COVID-19.
"The active COVID cases have nearly doubled in three days. The positivity rate is almost four times the ceiling set by the World Health Organization. Huwag na nating hintayin na sobrang lumala pa ang sitwasyon bago tayo gumawa ng paraan para mapabilis ang ating pagbabakuna."
FDA chief Eric Domingo says that its agency has given emergency approval for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The United States immunized around 900,000 children aged five-to-11 against Covid in the first week the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for them, a White House official says Wednesday.
Roughly 700,000 more have made appointments at pharmacies, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients tells reporters.
"The program is just getting up to full strength," he says, adding most of the shots were given in the last couple of days alone. — AFP
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