Philippines to get 20M doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna — Galvez

The Philippines is set to acquire 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from American biotechnology company Moderna, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Monday.

During the House Committee on Health inquiry on the government's COVID-19 vaccination program, Galvez said he has been given the go-signal to announce the developments in the Philippines' negotiation with Moderna to procure their vaccine.

"Yung Moderna, sinasabi ni Ambassador Babe Romualdez, I can already announce na 20 million [doses] ang makukuha natin," Galvez said, referring to Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez.

Of these 20 million doses, 10 million will be allocated for the private sector, while the remaining 10 million will be for the government.

Earlier, Romualdez said the target delivery of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines will begin in the middle of this year.

"I am pleased to share that, following months of discussions with Moderna, the Philippines is in the final stages of negotiating for the supply of a minimum of 10 million doses of mRNA-1273, the company’s vaccines, with the option to purchase an additional 10 million doses, for delivery beginning in mid-2021," he said in a statement posted on the Twitter page of the Philippine Embassy in the US.

"I welcome the pledge of support of the private sector led by ICTSI’s Enrique Razon in shipping and distributing the vaccines from the manufacturing facility in Spain to the Philippines at no cost to the Philippine government," he added.

Apart from Moderna, Galvez also earlier said the Philippines has secured 30 million doses of Covovax COVID-19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India.

He also said that the Philippines will get 25 million doses of China's Sinovac vaccine.

The Philippines targets to inoculate 50 to 70 million individuals within the year, and an estimated 50,000 is expected to be vaccinated in February.

Galvez said the vaccine manufactured by American corporation Pfizer could be the first that will be used against COVID-19 in the country as the COVAX Facility will have an early rollout of the said brand. — RSJ, GMA News