MANILA – The Philippines will sign a supply deal for 20 million doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine from British drug group AstraZeneca.
Testing czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the tripartite deal between the national government and the British drug firm giant will be inked today.
A tripartite deal with the national government and a vaccine maker allows a private firm or a local government to secure supplies of COVID-19 vaccine.
In November, around 30 local firms signed an agreement for 2.6 million AstraZeneca vaccine jabs. Half of these will be donated to the government, and the rest will go to company workers.
A second order was placed for an additional 3.7 to 3.8 million doses, said presidential adviser on entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion.
AstraZeneca earlier said its vaccine could be around 90 percent effective, giving the world another weapon to fight the global pandemic and potentially cheaper to make, easier to distribute and faster to scale-up than rivals.
Aside from AstraZeneca, the government has secured 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, and 25 million jabs from China’s Sinovac Biotech.
The government is also in talks for COVID-19 vaccine deals with drug groups Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson./PN
