Chance to get Pfizer vaccines early gone; but PH still in the game

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez said the country’s chance to access Pfizer vaccines early is gone. However, the Philippines is still in the game of getting supplies from the US drugmaker.

“It took time for us to respond, so I called up the office of Secretary (Salvador) Medialdea and asked him if he can help us in getting that done, and it was in fact the office of Secretary (Francisco) Duque, so I guess that’s where this whole ‘dropping the ball’ issue came about,” said Romualdez in an interview on Wednesday, referring to the phrase Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. used in a tweet about the missed vaccine deal.

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“But nonetheless Pfizer is still with us and they’re still talking to us and hopefully, we can get access to their vaccines. But the time for us to be able to get it earlier like Canada, Bahrain, and Singapore and others is gone because we needed to act quickly,” he added.

Romualdez said that Locsin and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were already talking about including the Philippines as one of the early buyers of Pfizer’s vaccines. This was in early July.

The ambassador said Pfizer told the Philippine Embassy in Washington that it is now accepting orders and that the CDA is needed to put the Philippines on the list.

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Duque denies “dropping the ball” in Pfizer vaccine deal

DOH Secretary Duque said he signed the CDA for Pfizer’s vaccine in October and insisted “there’s no such thing as ‘dropping the ball’ in the supposed Pfizer vaccine delivery in January 2021.

Duque also insisted negotiations with Pfizer are still ongoing.

According to Romualdez, he doesn’t know how the Manila officials evaluated and processed the approval of the CDA with Pfizer. Unfortunately, the “sense of urgency” was not met to sign the CDA.

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Earlier, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the government chose a more expensive COVID-19 vaccine from China’s Sinovac, the CoronaVac.

Roque said the government plans to purchase Pfizer vaccine. However, this could arrive in the second and third quarter of 2021, and “It’s not acceptable to the President to wait that long.”