Philippines' Duterte agrees to pay for vaccines in advance to ensure supply

MANILA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte, who has previously criticised Western manufacturers for
asking fees to reserve vaccines, has agreed to pay drugmakers in
advance to secure millions of COVID-19 shots, his spokesman said
on Thursday.
Duterte had also "approved in principle" an executive order
so that vaccines, which had been approved overseas for emergency
use, can be utilised in the Philippines, Presidential Spokesman
Harry Roque said.
"We agreed to pay in advance because if we don't, we might
be the last among countries to get the vaccine," Roque told a
media briefing.
The Philippines, which has the second highest number of
coronavirus cases and deaths in Southeast Asia, plans to procure
an initial 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to ensure at
least a quarter of its 108 million population gets inoculated
next year. Carlito Galvez, a former general leading the country's
task-force to tackle the pandemic, said the government was in
talks with several vaccine makers, including Pfizer Inc PFE.N
and Moderna Inc MRNA.O , over possible supply deals.
Pfizer said on Wednesday it could secure emergency U.S. and
European authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine next month
after final trial results showed it had a 95% success rate and
no serious side effects. Moderna on Monday released preliminary data for its vaccine
showing 94.5% effectiveness.
Duterte has said previously his preference was for his
country to source its COVID-19 vaccines from either China or
Russia.
Philippine authorities have also been looking at bilateral
and multilateral vaccine deals, including tapping the World
Health Organization's global vaccine project, known as COVAX, to
bolster the country's prospective arsenal against the pandemic.
Duterte has said the budget was there to purchase vaccines
but he wanted a bigger supply in order to inoculate the entire
Philippine population.
Galvez has said vaccines could start arriving between May
and July next year, with the bulk likely to come by the end of
2021 or early 2022.