PHL to get ‘fair share’ of 18% remaining global vaccine supply

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NATIONAL Task Force Against Covid-19 Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. vowed on Monday to get a fair share of the remaining 18 percent of the global supply of Covid-19 vaccines.

During the House Committee on Health’s hearing on the government’s vaccination program, Galvez said 80 percent of global supply has gone to rich countries.

“The reality is that more than 80 percent of the global supply has already been pre-procured by rich countries while the 2 percent has been preprocured by Covax [as of December 4],” he said. Covax is the World Health Organization-led facility that is meant to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines around the world.

“So we only have remaining 18 percent. So, we along with other countries are trying their best to negotiate with different vaccine companies to get a fair share of the vaccines for the remaining 18 percent of global supply,” he added.

According to Galvez, several countries have bought vaccines more than their population, citing Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, United States, Japan, Uzbekistan, Nepal, EU, Mexico, India, Brazil and Russia.

Currently, Galvez said, there is a vaccine shortfall for at least 2 billion people in the world.

“The national government approach is to pool national volumes to get a seat at the negotiating table and to secure the most vaccines at the best prices,” he added.

Galvez said the government has allocated P82.5 billion for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines for Filipinos.

‘Pattern of Covid overprice’

Also on Monday, the senator who first sought the hearings to get government to unveil its vaccine roadmap said the two hearings held thus far broke the pattern of overpricing in various Covid-related products, including the price for the Sinovac vaccine.

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said Monday.

“I think this is what happened here. When the Senate started to look into it—I delivered the privilege speech and requested for the Committee of the Whole hearing in December—when the matter was probed, and because of the senators’ questions, the vaccine prices were brought down,” he said, partly in Filipino, in a media interview.

“The price first cited was P3,600 and that came from the Department of Health. It didn’t come from us, it was submitted for a budget debate last December. So that is one good result of this Senate investigation, the price of Sinovac went down,” he added.

Pangilinan said the pattern of overpriced Covid-related products has been thwarted in previous Senate hearings.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, in a privilege speech Monday, agreed that Pangilinan’s resolution that led to the COW hearings helped expose the seeming overprice of Sinovac.

Pangilinan said decisions on the choice of vaccines should be made on the basis of science.

Efficacy and safety should be the priority, highlighting the significance of relying on medical experts, he added.

First quarter arrival

At the briefing also attended by Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Galvez announced that the first doses of vaccines available for distribution are expected to arrive by the first quarter of this year.

Also, Galvez announced that the Philippines will get 20 million doses from Moderna through a tripartite agreement between the government, privave sector and the US drugmaker.

Currently, the Philippines is negotiating with Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson (Janssen Pharmaceutica), Novavax, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Gamaleya and Moderna for Covid-19 vaccine.

Galvez said the country has entered term sheet agreements with Novavax for 30 million doses, AstraZeneca for 17 million doses, and Sinovac for 25 million doses.

Priority

According to Galvez, areas with high Covid-19 cases such as Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Davao will be given priority for the vaccination rollout where 24,668,128 sectoral priorities have been selected as follows: 1,762,994 frontline health workers; 3,789,874 indigent senior citizens; 5,678,544 remaining senior citizens; 12,911,193 remaining indigent population; and 525,523 uniformed personnel, which accounts for more than 22 percent of the country’s projected population of 108.8 million, as of the third quarter this year.

Galvez said those who will be vaccinated also include teachers and social workers in the public and private sectors followed by all remaining government workers; essential workers in agriculture, the food industry, transportation and tourism; sociodemographic groups in significantly higher risk areas other than the senior citizens and indigent population such as those persons deprived of liberty, persons with disabilities, and Filipinos living in high-density areas; overseas Filipino workers; other remaining work force; and the remaining Filipino citizens.

The government is set to launch a nationwide Covid-19 program, which aims to establish a sustainable and fully integrated vaccine deployment and immunization program against Covid-19. The program will utilize the framework of a whole-of-nation and whole-of-society approach in collaboration with the national government agencies, local government units and the private sector. Some LGUs have already earmarked funds for the Covid-19 vaccination of their constituents.

Meanwhile, Duque said the government vaccine road map seeks to promote safe, equitable and cost-effective immunization of Filipinos; full recovery of the economy and normalcy of the lives of the people; and sustainable public immunization for the next three to five years.

He believes the country may reach herd immunity within the year if there is enough global supply of Covid-19 vaccines that the country can access and utilize.

For her part, House Committee on Health Chairman Angelina Tan said that the briefing comes in light of the need to expedite the Covid-19 immunization program as well as ensure that it is safe and effective and that all agencies concerned are on the same page.

“We cannot afford to make mistakes at this critical juncture in our fight against the pandemic. We have to be on time for the Covid-19 inoculation drive. We need the vaccine rollout to be ready without compromising its safety and efficacy in order to build the trust and confidence of the public,” Tan said. With Butch Fernandez