The national government will purchase 90 million doses of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines beginning in the first quarter of 2022, National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. disclosed Monday night, Oct. 4.
Galvez said the Vaccine Expert Panel, a pool of medical advisers leading the evaluation of vaccine brands, have already submitted a new portfolio of vaccines and performance evaluation of each brand which will be considered by the NTF in its procurement.
"We are negotiating with four to five manufacturers to sign non-binding term sheets to lock-in the allocation of 90 million doses starting first quarter," Galvez told President Duterte at the pre-recorded "Talk to the People" public address.
Galvez has yet to completely reveal what brands will be included in next year's procurement.
However, he said the government will sign this week a contract with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for the procurement of six million doses of its single-dose vaccine while eight million doses of private sector-procured AstraZeneca will also arrive in the first quarter of 2022.
"By first quarter, the total delivery will include doses from AstraZeneca, the ones for the private sector which are eight million doses, and also six million which we will get from J&J," he said.
Galvez said the Department of Finance (DOF) has already started the preparations for the multilateral funding of the procurement worth P45 billion through negotiations with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The negotiations are expected to be completed before the end of 2021.
So far, the government has received 77.4 million doses and the supply is expected to reach 100 million doses by the end of October. The deliveries for this month include 10 million doses of government-procured Pfizer, five million doses of Moderna, and 10 million doses of Sinovac. The United States government is also seen to donate 5.9 million doses to the Philippines through the global vaccine sharing initiative, COVAX facility, this month.
Of the current supply, around 46 million doses were already administered: 24.7 million doses were injected as first dose while 21.9 million doses were used as second dose.
Around 31 million doses more were in the stockpile and these shots will be deployed in different regions and utilized by the government in one and a half months.