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Filipino-owned United Laboratories (Unilab), the leading pharmaceutical company in Southeast Asia, has been confirmed to do local vaccine manufacturing in the country starting with the COVID-19 with plans to also export to other ASEAN countries, according to Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has committed additional funds to the Philippines’ vaccine program as President Duterte’s chief economic manger supported an appeal to nations with excess vaccine supplies to release them as soon as possible. 

Despite meticulous clinical trials with subjects in the tens of thousands, unusual and uncommon side effects in those with predisposing conditions may be seen on the order of one out of a hundred thousand doses or more.

The Department of Health (DOH) announced last April 8 that it has “adopted the recommendation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to temporarily suspend the use of AstraZeneca vaccines for individuals aged below 60 years old, following recent reports of rare cases of blood clots with low platelets detected in some individuals inoculated with the vaccine.”

A multisectoral group has appealed to Malacanang and Congress to order the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Health  (DOH) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to facilitate the issuance of appropriate permits for the immediate production and distribution of Ivermectin drug to prevent and treat COVID-19.

The private sector has urged the government to address the legal issues involved in their procurement of the COVID-19 vaccines. 

Two local pharmaceutical firms are in “advanced stage and very serious interest” of their proposed COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing plans while at least four foreign companies have also been identified as potential vaccine technology providers, but a Philippine produced COVID-19 may have to wait at the earliest by 2023 yet.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund), said that a multi-country survey showed that Russia is the “most trusted vaccine producer” alongside the US, with its Sputnik V as the most recognizable vaccine. 

25 million people in the Philippines are at great risk of dying from COVID

"To our knowledge, this was the first in the world that was reported of a baby being born with antibodies after a vaccination."

The government’s chief economic manager said the private sector cannot directly import coronavirus vaccines due to existing rules that are outside the control of President Duterte.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the largest business organization in the country, is calling on the government to allow the private sector to import and buy COVID-19 vaccines directly from accredited sources without restrictions or conditions amid surge of infections in Luzon and to help the economy, which has been under quarantine for more than a year already. 

By now, the Duterte government should have already moved on from asking the public to wear masks because the more pressing issue is the rollout of the coronavirus vaccines, Vice President Leni Robredo’s spokesman said on Tuesday, March 16.

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has expressed full support on Tuesday, March 16, for the inclusion of governors, mayors and barangay captains in the government’s coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program priority list.

The national government has finally signed a supply agreement which would ensure the delivery of 30 million vaccine doses from United States biotechnology company Novavax, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. disclosed Tuesday, March 16.

The chief implementer of the National Task Force on COVID-19, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. would rather see Filipinos 'learning to live with the virus' rather than live with total lockdown enforcements anew.

Amid the rapid increase of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country in the past days, the national government has stepped up its vaccination efforts of around 1.7 million medical frontliners in order to proceed to the next phases of the vaccination plan.

The provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in the southernmost part of the country have finally received its first doses of anti-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines for its medical frontliners, the military bared Friday, March 12.