Palace: COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines not for sale

 

COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines are not for sale, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Tuesday

Roque made the clarification after Philippine Red Cross (PRC) chairperson Senator Richard Gordon announced in an ANC interview that the PRC would charge P3,500 for two doses of the Moderna vaccine.

Since then, the PRC clarified that it is not selling the vaccine to its members and donors but the P3,500 payment will be for the syringes, personal protective equipment, meals, and other expenses related to the vaccination.

"Ang pangako po ni Presidente, ibibigay ang bakuna ng libre. Babayaran po ito ng ating gobyerno," Roque said in a Palace briefing.

(The President promised the COVID-19 vaccine will be free of charge, and it will be paid for by the government.)

Those COVID-19 vaccines procured by the private sector under a tripartite agreement with the national government, Roque said, will be used by the private firms on their people.

"Wala pong dapat magbenta [ng bakuna] kasi wala pa pong general use authority ang kahit anong brand ng bakuna," Roque added.

(Nobody is allowed to sell COVID-19 vaccines because these vaccines are yet to secure general use authority.)

An emergency use authority (EUA) is a guarantee of the vaccine’s safety and efficacy from the FDA.

An EUA, however, is not an authorization for commercial sale since all COVID-19 vaccines are still undergoing human trials at this point.

The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authority to the following vaccine brands: Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Sputnik V, Janssen, Covaxin, and Moderna.

Of these brands, Janssen, Covaxin, and Moderna are yet to be delivered to the Philippines.

The Philippines has seven million doses of COVID-19 vaccine supply so far. Of this number, four million doses have been deployed while three million doses have been administered. — DVM, GMA News

This article Palace: COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines not for sale was originally published in GMA News Online.