THE government may be risking its chance to purchase 148 million doses of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine for possible violation of the terms of its confidentiality disclosure agreement (CDA) with pharmaceutical companies.
Chief implementer of the government’s national policy on Covid-19 Carlito G. Galvez said he had been warned by some of the firms of the risk when he was summoned in the Senate and House of Representatives on the government’s vaccine procurement program.
He said any violation of the CDA will taint the country’s credibility and reputation among pharmaceutical companies and hurt its chances of securing sufficient doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
“We would like to ask for the understanding of the public for us to respect the contract since our 148 (million doses) vaccines depends on it,” Galvez said.
This was collaborated by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who is also a signatory of the CDA for the Covid-19 vaccine of Pfizer-BioNTech, which barred him from discussing about the price and the number of doses under negotiation.
Executive session
Galvez said they will only be able to disclose details of the purchase once they conclude the negotiations and “they feel that it is necessary to be disclosed.”
“It will become a public domain if both parties agree to disclose it,” Galvez said.
He said they may be able to divulge more details among lawmakers, but only though an executive session
“There will be what we call labelling for information and we will have harmonization on the information they have and our information,” Galvez said.
Lawmakers grilled Galvez last week on the details about the government’s vaccine procurement process, fearing the Philippines will purchase substandard and costly vaccines.
Stringent approval
Galvez assured that the procurement of the vaccines will go through stringent measures from the government as well as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other financial institutions, which they partnered with before their vaccine procurement is finalized.
No less than President Duterte said he and the Department of Finance (DOF) must approve the purchase agreements before it could be implemented.
Galvez said they are hoping to finalize the first supply agreement with pharmaceutical companies Novavax, Sinovac, AstaZenaca and Moderna this month for 92 million doses.
On track
The vaccine czar expressed optimism that recent developments in vaccine procurement will allow them to rollout the inoculation drive by next month.
Galvez said they are also scheduled to conduct a simulation of the vaccination deployment in Quezon City on Friday.
“We are on track in the implementation of the Philippine National Vaccine Roadmap,” Galvez assured.
In fact, he said, they will conduct a dry run and inspection of cold storage facilities to be used for vaccine distribution on Wednesday.
National Action Plan (NAP) Against Covid-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Vince Dizon they are already in talks with over 30 “pharma-grade” cold storage facilities for the vaccine deployment.
He said they are now in the advanced stages of negotiations with the said companies.