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| Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. |
by: ALLAINE ALANIGUE
QUEZON CITY, (PIA) -- National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said requests for multi-part agreements (MPAs) for the purchase of vaccines included in the Philippines’ vaccine portfolio were put on hold primarily because of supply concerns in the global market.
“Ang problema ay hindi ang contract but ‘yung supply. Mali ang assumption na kapag napirmahan na ang contract, andyan na ang supply. Manufacturers cannot give us yet definite supply (The problem is not the contract but the supply. It is a wrong assumption that when a contract has been signed, the supply is already available),” Galvez said.
Supply issues were the main reason for slippages in the deliveries of Moderna, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines, Galvez said.
This was seconded by Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion who said deliveries of vaccines remain a challenge.
"The negotiations with AstraZeneca were perfectly fine. The vaccines we ordered are coming from Thailand and this is where our supplies will come from,” Concepcion said.
“We made the order in November [2020] and the first delivery arrived in July [2021]," he added.
"It’s coming through in very small volumes, but we are pressing AstraZeneca to step up the deliveries," he furthered.
Out of the 17 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine procured by the private sector and LGUs, 3.2 million doses have been delivered.
Nearly eight million doses will be delivered by the first quarter of 2022. (PIA-NCR)
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