Moderna reaches supply deal with Philippines for 13M COVID-19 vaccine doses

Moderna Inc said on Saturday it has agreed to supply the Philippine government 13 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, with deliveries set to begin in mid-2021.

The company will work with regulators to pursue necessary approvals prior to the distribution, it said in a press release.

Moderna said it expected to reach a separate deal with the Philippine government and private sector to supply an additional 7 million doses.

According to a GMA News report, the said 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine doses is part of the 20 million doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine that the Philippines is set to procure from the pharmaceutical company.

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said they are just waiting for the final draft of the agreement for signing.

“We thank the government and the private sector for their collaboration to bring the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna to the Philippines,” Moderna chief executive officer Stéphane Bancel said.

“We appreciate the confidence in Moderna, and our mRNA platform demonstrated by the Government of the Philippines. We remain committed to making our vaccine available on every continent to help end this global pandemic," he added.

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez also confirmed the development on Sunday.

"Ang gobyerno, they just were able to conclude mga 13 million doses so malaking bagay 'yan," Romualdez told Dobol B TV in an interview.

"Hopefully darating 'yan by June of this year," he added.

Moderna is an American company, and its COVID-19 vaccine has shown 94% efficacy

Apart from Moderna, the Philippines has reserved 6 million doses of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Johnson and Johnson, but there is no target delivery date yet, Romualdez said.

Janssen is the lone COVID-19 vaccine which is administered with a single dose.

"'Yung Johnson and Johnson, meron tayong naka-reserve na 6 million pero hindi nila masapat kung kailan nila puwedeng ma-deliver 'yan," Romualdez said.

"Dito kasi sa Amerika, may instruction si President Biden na lahat ng kailangan na bakuna ng mga Amerikano, gusto niya na by end of May, lahat ng mga Amerikano nabakunahan na," he added.

In January, the Philippines' Food and Drug Administration approved the COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, and that of AstraZeneca for emergency use.

The country started its COVID-19 vaccination program last March 1, with health workers being the first in line to be inoculated.

This came only a day after 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Sinovac donated by the Chinese government arrived on February 28.

This was followed by the 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine donated by European nations and Australia under the global initiative COVAX facility which arrived on March 4.

Another batch of 38,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to arrive later in the day.

On Saturday, the Philippines logged 3,439 new COVID-19 cases and 42 new deaths. It was the second time this week that more than 3,000 cases were recorded, indicating an increasing rate of infection in the country.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country thus reached 591,138 on Saturday. Of this number, 535,350 recovered while 12,465 died. —Reuters/Erwin Colcol and Michaela del Callar/KG, GMA News