Health Secretary Francisco Duque III defended himself against accusations that his mistake delayed the Pfizer vaccine delivery to the Philippines in January 2021.
In an interview with ANC, Duque said the confidentiality disclosure agreement (CDA) with Pfizer was supposed to be signed by the Office of President (OP) and not by the Department of Health (DOH). He said Pfizer wanted OP, through the Executive Secretary (ES), to sign the CDA.
“August 11, Pfizer sent a draft, ‘yun na ‘yung CDA. But that draft was meant to be signed by the Office of the ES on behalf of all government agencies,” he said.
“That would have spared Pfizer from signing a confidentiality agreement with many other government agencies, so isa na lang dapat,” he added.
However, on September 24, the ES said that the DOH would sign the CDA after “repeated reviews” from concerned agencies, Duque said.
Duque said the DOH could sign the CDA on behalf of the whole government, noting this is why the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. had signed the document separately.
DOST and Galvez signed the CDA in November, while Duque signed on October 20.
“I have the chronology of events so that this is all documented. There’s no such thing that I did not act quick enough,” Duque said.
“When you go through a process, you cannot just be hurrying up things just like that. You have to be prudent and cautious, especially because you are talking about a novel vaccine,” he added.
Duque described some of the CDA’s provisions are “one-sided” and said they coordinated with Pfizer regarding the revisions.
“hindi ito simpleng parang gagawa ka lang ng dokumento,” he said.
Duque explains side on Pfizer vaccine controversy
Duque said Pfizer sent the overview of its candidate on June 24. The DOH then referred it to DOST – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development on June 29.
On August 6, the DOH communicated to Pfizer reiterating that DOST has to evaluate its vaccine.
The DOH received the draft of the CDA on August 11 and forwarded it to the legal service, the comments concurred in by technical offices on August 26.
On September 14, Duque received the revised copy of the CDA with the revision from the Office of ES.
On September 24, the ES informed that the DOH would sign the CDA.
Duque signed the CDA three weeks after ES advised that DOH will be the signatory.