Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. reiterated on Tuesday night, Aug 24., that the national government was not delaying the signing of multi-party agreements (MPAs) on the procurement of vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Galvez, also the chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, said some manufacturers such as China's Sinovac and Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute are no longer keen on pursuing MPAs with the private sector and local government units (LGUs) as they want to transact with only one party.
"Gusto nila isa lang ang kausap. Sabi kasi nila kapag maraming kausap, it will entail an enlargement of their personnel at saka medyo napakahirap ng logistical ano po, sir. Kasi kumbaga sa ano, lahat ng LGU, kung 300 ang LGU, sila po ang mag-aasikaso po ng delivery po na ‘yun. Samantala kung kausap po nila ang gobyerno, isa lang (They want to talk to only one . They said that if they are talking to multiple , it will entail an enlargement of their personnel and the logistics will be difficult. If there are 300 LGUs , they will be the ones settling all those deliveries. But if they talk only to the government, there's only one ," Galvez said in a pre-recorded Cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, Moderna and AstraZeneca have already stopped accepting new orders for the "first wave" of vaccine procurement or the MPAs that were signed late 2020 until early 2021.
"They are no longer accepting vaccine order for the first wave procurement. They will accept order for the second wave procurement, ibig sabihin ibang produkto ‘yun (that means these are different products)," Galvez said.
The second wave procurement, he added, might include booster shots and "second generation" vaccines or those improved jabs that are effective against the emerging variants.
As for Janssen's Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer, the American manufacturers are "not currently open for the multi-party agreements," Galvez noted.
There are some manufacturers that are also currently being evaluated by the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) such as India's Bharat Biotech, which produces Covaxin, since the price of their vaccine is thrice higher than the widely-used brands.
"Some LGUs are trying to buy this vaccine. We want to see its cost-effectiveness because it is too pricey," Galvez said.
"Event though its the LGUs that are procuring them, these are still public funds, Mr. President. We want to protect them as they might later be flagged by COA ," he added.
Other manufacturers such as Novavax and Serum Institute of India, which produces Covovax vaccine, do not have the required emergency use authorization (EUA) yet that's why the govenrment has not allowed the signing of their MPAs, Galvez said.
The vaccine czar said the government was just practicing due diligence in all the vaccine procurements that it enters into, including the signing of MPAs with the private sector and LGUs.
"Hindi po namin hino-hold ‘yong tripartite agreement, hindi po namin dini-delay. Ang ginagawa lang po namin is ‘yong due diligence (We are not holding the tripartite agreement, we are not delaying it. What we are doing is for due diligence)," he stressed.
"Gusto po namin na ‘yong pera ng LGU at saka ‘yong pera ng private sector, hindi po sila mapapahamak sa ginagawa po natin (We don't want the LGUs and private sector to be at a disadvantage in what we're doing)," he added.
Sen. Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri previously revealed that several MPAs for the purchase of at least 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were put on hold by the NTF. The MPAs, according to Zubiri, include the requests for vaccine procurements of 42 LGUs and around 300 private companies.