Philippines to buy 1 million doses of Sinovac this March

MANILA, Philippines, March 2 ------ One million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines developed by Sinovac of China will arrive within the month under a P700-million purchase deal that is set to boost the country’s initial stock of 600,000 doses of the same brand donated by Beijing. Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. made the announcement yesterday as the government rolled out its vaccination program following the arrival on Sunday of 600,000 donated doses of Sinovac vaccines from China.

Galvez said CoronaVac of Sinovac and Russia’s Sputnik V are the only available vaccines due to heavy global demand. “That is why we have procurement this coming March. We have one million from Sinovac,” Galvez said. He said there is already a purchase order or PO for the acquisition of one million doses for P700 million. “We have funds. We have P700 million funds,” Galvez pointed out. “Once we sign it, the one million doses will arrive this coming March in tranches. We saw 500,000 doses loaded onto an airplane. So, that would be in two tranches.”

Sinovac Biotech general manager Helen Yang told ANC they are still discussing details of the shipment with the Philippine government. “The vaccine showed a good safety profile and strong efficacy results to prevent the severe cases and could lower down the burdens of the health care system,” Yang said. “We sincerely hope that the Philippines will start to use the vaccine and help reboot the economy,” she added.

Galvez said the country’s supply agreements with other COVID-19 vaccine brands Moderna, Johnson and Johnson and Novavax were still pending. Aside from Sinovac, other COVID-19 vaccine brands issued emergency use authorization by the Philippine FDA were Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca. Galvez also said there is no definite date yet for arrival of 3.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines due to global shortage of vaccines.

Based on previous announcement, AstraZeneca vaccines were supposed to arrive yesterday, under the COVAX Facility. “There is no definite date yet. We have seen the reality on the ground. The global shortage of supply is acute,” Galvez said. Galvez also said the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech would likely be delivered by the second quarter. The delivery was initially announced to happen in mid-February. After seeing surveys showing low public confidence in the Sinovac vaccine, the President – Galvez said – ordered him and other top officials to be inoculated with it.

At the Philippine General Hospital where he got inoculated with CoronaVac, Galvez said Filipinos would not be able to return to normal life and the economy would remain sluggish if they refuse to get immunized immediately and opt to wait for Western vaccines, which would come later in the year. “We should not wait for the so-called best vaccine. There is no best vaccine because the best vaccines are those which are effective and efficient and come early,” Galvez said.

Source: philstar.com