The Philippines health ministry expects to receive 30 million doses of Novavax Inc’s Covid-19 drug by next July. That tranch will allow boosting the efforts to secure supplies to vaccinate more than 100 million people.
The Philippines have discussed many types of vaccines against the novel pathogen and made its choice. The health ministry has signed only one supply deal, with the help of its private sector. Thus, the country will get 2.6 million shots of an anti-virus drug developed by AstraZeneca.
“Thirty million dosages of the Indian-made Novavax vaccines are assured possibly with no cash advance. It will be available by July 2021,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said.
Additionally, the Philippines plans to buy 25 million doses of a vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech for delivery by March. The next step is securing between four and 25 million doses of vaccines from Moderna and Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc.
Talks with Moderna continues, the pharma group’s vaccine has been granted emergency use authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration, will begin next week, according to Locsin.
For the Philippines, the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases in South- East Asia after Indonesia, the issue of vaccine is crucial. As of mid-December, the country reported 459,789 infections and 8,947 deaths from coronavirus.
