MANILA, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The Philippines plans to procure
an initial 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to ensure at
least a quarter of its population gets inoculated next year, a
top coronavirus task force official said on Monday.
Carlito Galvez, the former general in charge of implementing
the country's strategy to fight the coronavirus, said several
embassies had been contacted about potential
government-to-government arrangement for purchasing the
vaccines.
He did not identify those countries. However, President
Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly said he preferred that his
country source its COVID-19 vaccines from either China or
Russia.
Authorities were also 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, Galvez told a media
briefing.
The government was evaluating 17 vaccines "for safety,
efficacy, cost effectiveness", he said.
Duterte has said he has the budget to purchase vaccines but
wants more in order to inoculate the entire Philippine
population.
The Philippines, with its more than 108 million people and
some of the highest numbers of COVID-19 infections in Asia, is
considered as both a suitable location for clinical trials and a
large market for global vaccine manufacturers.
Galvez said vaccines could start arriving between May and
July, with the bulk of supply likely to come by the end of 2021
or early 2022.
He said the Philippines was also negotiating access to at
least 3-5 million doses of vaccines from AstraZeneca AZN.L ,
Britain's second-largest drugmaker, as it had pledged to supply
vaccines at no profit.