Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Tuesday the Philippines has sealed the deal for 30 million doses of the Novavax vaccine.
“Naging maganda ang resulta ng pagbiyahe natin sa India no’ng isang linggo. Doon, napirmahan na po namin ang supply agreement kung saan ang Serum Institute of India ay magsu-supply ng 30 million doses ng Novavax sa ating bansa,” he said in a Palace briefing.
(Our trip to India last week was fruitful. There, we signed the supply agreement stating that the Serum Institute of India will supply 30 million doses of Novavax to our country.)
Galvez said the Novavax vaccines would be manufactured in India. They are likely to be delivered in the third or fourth quarter of the year.
The Philippine Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine emergency use.
In January, the private sector said it plans to get coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine from Novavax, a vaccine developer from India for companies wishing to pursue agreements with government and pharmaceutical firms.
PH signs 30M Novavax vaccine deal – Galvez
Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion has confirmed that they are in talks with Novavax for private companies that have not been able to keep up with the first 2 orders for AstraZeneca, but there is no final agreement yet.
Because the price of Novavax vaccine is higher than AstraZeneca, Concepcion will ask if they can stop donating the vaccines they get to the government.
“Moving forward, even Novavax, the private sector will not be needing anymore, required, to donate. Anyway, you know the government already saved money by not paying for our employees,” said Concepcion.
Novavax Inc said in January that its COVID-19 vaccine was 89.3% effective in preventing COVID-19 in a trial conducted in the United Kingdom.
“It’s not statistically different. The vaccine basically works well in the predominant strain circulating in the UK, which means it’s like to be equally effective in the United States,” John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said.