Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that the negotiation to secure COVID-19 vaccines from US-based Pharmaceutical company Pfizer is still ongoing.

(Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin recently said that the Philippines was supposed to secure 10 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine by January “but somebody dropped the ball.”

“First of all, there is no such thing as dropping the ball... the negotiations are ongoing,” said Duque in an online forum on Wednesday, December 16.

Duque said that he signed a Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement (CDA) with Pfizer last October, adding that vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez also signed the same document with the US-based firm last month.

“Tuloy-tuloy lang kami sa mga reviews nung mga conditionalities/ provisions and I just wanted to make sure na hindi onerous or disadvantageous to government yung mga provisions,” he said

“Our vaccine czar also signed a CDA with Pfizer last November. So, he would be in the best position to tell you or us at what stage that the negotiations we are in,” he added.

Meantime, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said on Wednesday that the procurement of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccines from drug manufacturer Pfizer is still “in progress” and the delivery to the Philippines will most likely happen in June 2021.

Romualdez, in an interview with CNN Philippines, said the supposed January 2021 delivery date was pushed back to around June next year due to the failure of the Philippines to “act quick enough” on the Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA) involving the procurement. Because of this, the Philippine envoy said. other countries like Singapore “got ahead of us.”

Romualdez also said that aside from Pfizer, the Philippine negotiation with another US pharmaceutical Moderna is likewise “in progress” as he expressed hope that if the country can commit soon, “we can possibly get the delivery by (the) middle (of) next year.”

On Tuesday, Locsin disclosed in a tweet that he and Romualdez had already secured some 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccine with the help of US State Mike Pompeo until “somebody dropped the ball.”

Locsin, however, did not identify the people or person he was referring to in his tweet.

Analou De Vera & Roy C. Mabasa

Duque says negotiations with Pfizer ‘still ongoing’; PH envoy to US projects vaccine delivery by June 2021