After the first round of “A Dose of Hope” initiative that secured around 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the country, Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said that more than 500 companies will participate for the potential sourcing of another COVID-19 vaccine, Novavax.
In a statement, Concpecion said that more than 500 companies will participate in their briefing today (Feb. 11) with Faberco Life Sciences Inc., which has the distribution rights for Novavax in the Philippines. More than 300 firms, mostly large and medium firms in the country, participated in the first round of the tripartite “A Dose of Hope” project.
Novavax is an American vaccine development company with efficacy rate of 89.3 percent. Faberco, who will handle the National Government and local government unit orders, has appointed United Laboratories, Inc. (Unilab) to handle the procurement of the private sector.
“Luckily, we have already secured our doses with AstraZeneca. We are fortunate that Lotis Ramin and the whole of AstraZeneca in the Philippines has done their utmost effort just to secure the doses for the country. Now, with Novavax, they have offered our country an equitable and great offer and I am encouraging the private sector to look at this developing initiative. Unilab will handle the orders from the private sector and Faberco will handle both the government and LGU orders. We are in full support of this partnership,” Concepcion said.
Go Negosyo, through the ‘A Dose of Hope’ program, has been at the forefront of engaging the private sector to partner with the public sector—developing the first tripartite agreement with the government, the only one of its kind around the world. Concepcion, founder of Go Negosyo, continues to find ways to secure vaccines for the country as the need never stops and the demand continuously surges.
“Our economic problem is induced by a health issue, the COVID-19 pandemic. The only solution is the vaccine which will give us the chance to eliminate, if not, drastically slow down the transmission of the virus. Now, it’s the time for every qualified Filipino to respond to this call of duty and take the vaccine.
We will serve like soldiers in this war and our gun is the vaccine. If everyone suits up, we will be able to beat COVID-19 and open up the economy much more—allowing industries who have been greatly affected like the tourism, retail, and restaurant sector, among others, to come back,” Concepcion advocated.
Meantime, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Concepcion said his agency has suspended its plan to consolidate vaccine orders from small and medium enterprises stating the government procurement will be more than enough.
“The latest from the vaccine committee is we suspend the consolidation since there will be more than enough government purchases and current tripartite agreements to cover vaccination of all frontliners including the economic frontliners and workers,” said Lopez.
In addition, Lopez said there were around 10 MSE firms only that submitted their vaccine orders. The trade chief said that the consolidated orders were just minimal and will be covered by government procurement already.
According to Lopez, the 10 SMEs submitted their interest to procure vaccines dosage through the government, even when guidelines were not yet completed.