More than four million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have expired, resulting in a P5.1-billion loss for the private sector.
"The final tally of expired Covid vaccines in private sector warehouses is 4,252,830, translating to a loss of $100.1 million, or a staggering P5.1 billion," Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion disclosed on Wednesday, July 27.
Concepcion, who is also a member of the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) under the current administration, said the final batch of AstraZeneca vaccines will expire this July 31, while the last of the Moderna vaccines expired Wednesday.
“This means that the country has only the Pfizer vaccines left for first and second boosters," Concepcion said.
Of the total expired vaccines, 3,629,150 are Moderna vaccines, half of these are under the possession of the government.
“These Moderna vaccines have the same expiry date, so whatever expired in the private sector warehouses also expired in the public sector,” Concepcion said.
With this, the former presidential adviser slammed the belated decision of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) to allow second Covid-19 booster vaccinations for Filipinos aged 50 and above, and for individuals with comorbidities aged 18 to 49.
The private sector has been appealing to the government to allow the second booster vaccinations of more Filipinos, particularly the workforce, sounding the alarm that millions of vaccines will be put to waste as they are already nearing expiration.
“We were willing to get vaccinated. There was not even a need for a vaccine mandate,” he said.
“The expiry dates of these vaccines have already been extended and there is nothing more that can be done but to accept this preventable loss,” he added.