Philippines eyeing to secure excess COVID-19 vaccines from Canada — envoy

The Philippines has expressed its intention to get some of the excess COVID-19 vaccines from Canada as part of the government’s efforts to boost the local supply.

At a Palace news conference on Monday, Philippine Ambassador to Canada Rodolfo Robles said Canada is expected to have a surplus of around 100 million doses.

“We are being listed among those who are interested to partake of the excess of the 100 million (doses). They expect to have a full vaccination of everybody by the middle of the fourth quarter,” Robles said.

“Before the end of the year, we will know how [much] excess Canada will have. I am really watching with an eagle eye on the prospect of getting some excess directly from Canada.”

Its southern neighbor, the United States, had already included the Philippines in the list of countries to receive a portion of the millions of doses pledged by US President Joe Biden early this month.

Last week, Manila’s Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez said around 800,000 to 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines would be delivered to the Philippines next month.

Meanwhile, Robles said he had asked Medicago, a Canadian biopharmaceutical company, to set up a vaccine manufacturing plant in the Philippines. 

“I offered our pharmaceutical ecozone in Bulacan I think and I gave them all the perks of having manufacturing [operations] in the Philippines like free taxes, free capital importations and the like,” he said.

Robles said he expects the negotiations to “proceed more rapidly” once the non-disclosure agreement asked by Medicago has been signed by the Philippine government.

Medicago is currently developing a plant-based COVID-19 vaccine. — RSJ, GMA News