Senator Grace Poe on Monday appealed to the government to expedite its processing of emergency use authority (EUA) applications for COVID-19 vaccines to allay suspicions that officials are waiting for grease money to allow their swift approval.
During the Senate Committee of the Whole's inquiry on the government's vaccination program, Poe said the process for the issuance of the EUA for COVID-19 vaccines can be shortened "para mawala ang mga haka-haka ng ating mga kababayan na siguro naghihintay ng kickback ang DOH kaya hindi agad nabibigyan ng permit (so that our countrymen's suspicions that the Department of Health might be waiting for kickbacks, that's why they are not yet giving the permits)."
"It may be an unfair assessment but would you blame them with the track record the DOH has?" she said.
Poe maintained that the stringent assessment of candidate vaccines is important especially if records on the trials of the vaccines are not transparent and regulators are being questioned on the credibility.
Still, she said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should speed it up when it comes from companies and countries with a better track record.
"These companies have gone through a rigorous process of testing in countries with reputable testing facilities tapos pagdating sa atin ganito (but when it comes to us . Alam na nga nating (We all know that we are under a) national emergency, we cannot even fast-track something like this,” Poe lamented.
"The process seems unreasonably long, to accredit a company that has already been accredited so many times in other countries," she added.
"If the virus won’t kill us, then red tape and slow government action surely will," she also said.
FDA Director General Eric Domingo told senators they target to complete the processing of Pfizer’s EUA application this week while AstraZeneca’s application should be processed by next week.
The processing of the applications takes 21 days, Domingo said.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said the government could also tap private organizations, such as the Philippine Red Cross, to implement the vaccination program and speed up the inoculation of the population.
"If we go with what happened to the PCR testing, which took so long before we're actually able to spread it out throughout the Philippines, ganon din po mangyayari sa bakunang ito kung gagawin nating centralized ang procurement (the same will happen to these vaccination if we keep the procurement centralized)," said Zubiri, who is also vice chairman of the Philippine Red Cross.
In the same hearing, senators asked the FDA to allow local government units and private sector to procure vaccines directly from pharmaceutical companies.
Domingo explained that only the national government can deal with the vaccine manufacturers since only products with EUA can be allowed for local distribution in the country.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. also said the pharmaceutical firms have also refused to directly negotiate with private firms and LGUs.
"During our negotiation with the companies, only Astrazeneca and Novavax allow for the tripartite. Only two companies out of the seven companies that we have been negotiating complied with the request," Galvez said.
"They cannot negotiate with the private sector without the national government...They wanted the government to be the one who will facilitate their negotiations with the LGUs because of the stringent regulations globally also," he added.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, meanwhile, said the government is open to working with the private sector for the rollout of the immunization program.
"We have the practice of really getting the private hospitals, the private clinics to do, to help us vaccinate. Otherwise, if we do it just using the government resources talagang patagalan po ito (and we will indeed take long). That is why its been our policy na may (to have a) public-private complementary," he said.