Business leaders hope for faster vaccine rollout

MANILA, Philippines — An “accelerated” or early rollout of vaccines for COVID-19 would boost business confidence and promote economic recovery, business group Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) said yesterday.

“The rollout of the vaccines, especially if their acquisition and distribution are accelerated, will certainly boost this confidence and hasten the economic recovery of our country,” MAP president Francis Lim said.

A survey conducted and released in September by MAP with PwC Philippines showed most chief executive officers are cautiously optimistic about the prospects of the economy.

In particular, 83 percent of the CEOs surveyed expect the economy to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in one to two years, and 59 percent are confident about their revenue growth prospects in the next 12 months.

Earlier, presidential adviser on entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said British drug maker AstraZeneca has approved a second batch of COVID-19 vaccine procurement for donations by the private sector.

Late last month, Concepcion together with over 30 representatives from the private sector and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. entered into a deal with AstraZeneca Philippines country president Lotis Ramin for the purchase of 2.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

The private sector would donate half of the vaccines from AstraZeneca to the Department of Health (DOH), with the rest earmarked for their employees.

Vaccines to be purchased under the signed deal are expected to be available by May or June next year.

The DOH said AstraZeneca may apply for emergency use authorization (EUA) to supply COVID-19 vaccines.

According to DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, there are two “pathways” for the country to secure vaccines for COVID-19 – one is to conduct clinical trials in the Philippines and the other is to apply for EUA with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Last week, AstraZeneca withdrew its application with FDA to do clinical trial for its candidate vaccine in the Philippines.

“Apparently, they were already able to meet the sufficient number of (trial) participants required. So they don’t need to have another trial here in the country,” she said.

Vergeire noted the government is now having negotiations with AstraZeneca “whose next step will be the application for an EUA here in the country, if ever.”

She also reported that there are now 16 participants in the ongoing clinical trial for Japanese drug Avigan from the original eight when trial started on Nov. 20.

Vergeire added that they are expecting to have more participants as the protocol for recruitment has been modified. A total of 144 participants are being targeted for Avigan trials.

Sinovac deal this week

National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Galvez said the government aims to finalize a purchase deal with Chinese firm and vaccine frontrunner Sinovac this week, as he assured the public that regulators would look into the bribery allegations against the company.

“Most likely, this week. We want to finalize it this week, our final negotiation so that we can firm up the terms and also we are looking at the exact time of the distribution,” Galvez said at a press briefing yesterday when asked for updates on the negotiations with Sinovac.

He said the government is planning to buy 25 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac.

“They (Sinovac) said they are very confident that they will have the resources in April, but we are negotiating that March will be our target,” the vaccine czar added.

Galvez said Philippine regulators have vowed to probe the bribery accusations involving Sinovac officials.

“We asked the regulatory board about it and they will examine those allegations. And we found out that that allegation was during the year 2017 and we are talking also with Sinovac,” he said.

“We feel that, in fairness to them, they have given us a lot of after sales freebies and we saw that Sinovac’s service is good, including what we call the apps (to be used) after the inoculation,” he added.

He noted that Sinovac would be having vaccine rollout in other countries like Indonesia and Brazil.

“We saw that the ongoing negotiation that we have is very clean and very open,” he said.

He also maintained the government may sign most of the COVID-19 vaccine purchase agreements next month as the phase of procurement would depend on the approval of drug regulators.

Galvez noted that under the Philippines’ arrangement with multilateral lenders Asian Development Bank and World Bank, EUAs are required before procurement.

“Once the EUA… of the originating country is out, it serves as our cue... All our procurement will be through multilateral arrangement with the Asian Development Bank and also with the World Bank and they require what they call stringent regulatory compliance,” Galvez said at a press briefing.

He said the government is negotiating with nine pharmaceutical firms, four of them already in the advanced stage. Talks with the five other companies are still in the exploratory stage.

Rich get 80 percent

He admitted that the government is facing challenges because rich countries have already cornered 80 percent of vaccine supply.

“For now, most probably, we would have a vaccine in the first quarter (of 2021), most probably March. And then also, the second tranches will arrive in the second quarter, third quarter and the fourth quarter. But we are expecting volumes of vaccines in the early third quarter,” he added.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque allayed concerns that China may use COVID-19 vaccines to pressure the Philippines to change its stance on the South China Sea row.

“Our policy is to build friendships with everyone, we have an independent foreign policy. And the President in fact shares many values with the leadership of China, including personal friendship with President Xi (Jinping),” Roque said.

“So I think, the possibility of using the vaccine as pressure as far as the Philippines is concerned is almost nil,” he added.

Philippine ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana said China is offering vaccines to improve its standing in the world and to “win hearts and minds.”

“As you know, the rating of China, for example in the Philippines, when it comes to trustworthiness is quite low. And so the point of this vaccine diplomacy is on the one hand, their pledge to make it a global public good, to make it available particularly to their close friends, countries that are friendly to them, neighboring countries,” Sta. Romana said.

“But whether they’ll make it as a condition in geopolitics, that has not come up in any discussion. And I think the Chinese are very clear that when it comes to the Philippines, we put it on separate tracks. Where we have differences, we discuss it. But if you’re going to use one to press on the other, that will certainly not work under this current administration. So there has been no attempt by the Chinese to link the two together,” he added.

Politicking

Roque also assailed Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Vice President Leni Robredo for raising issues about the administration’s vaccine procurement.

Earlier, Drilon likened the P72.5 billion earmarked for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines to an unfunded check.

Drilon said only P2.5 billion of the P72.5 billion is funded. The remaining P70 billion is in the unprogrammed fund, the availability of which depends on approved loans or if government exceeds its non-tax revenues targets.

“Sen. Drilon, Vice President, the elections are still far off. Stop the politics. I have repeatedly said that we can borrow from multilateral sources and bilateral sources for the needed 72.5 billion,” Roque said.

“I’m sure Senator Drilon knows about this already having been a veteran lawmaker, the same thing goes for the Vice President. They should know how the budget works. It should be in the budget, otherwise we can’t spend for that item, even if we plan to borrow money to finance it,” he added.

He also scored Tony Leachon, a public health advocate and former adviser of the COVID-19 task force, for questioning the government’s decision to prioritize Sinovac despite the vaccine’s unproven safeness and efficacy.

“I’ll be honest with Dr. Leachon. They were edited out of the talk to the people but the President had cursed you many times. He said you kept on saying a lot of things but you were just after a government position,” Roque said.

“Next time the President curses you, I would insist it would be shown to the people. Perhaps you thought the President is happy with what you are doing. No, all the other Cabinet members who have been in attendance in the recording of the talk to the people can attest to this,” he added.

Galvez also said he found it difficult working with Leachon. “May sariling mundo (has his own world),” he said, referring to Leachon.

In a Tweet, Leachon said he is “not affected anymore by what others would say as long as you work for the greater good.”

“These are minor bumps in a life full of challenges. As a health advocate you will face these problems. We can’t please everyone. Roll with the punches. Focus on the higher goal,” he said.

Meanwhile, Robredo’s spokesman has criticized the seeming lack of urgency on the part of the Duterte administration in purchasing COVID-19 vaccines.

“Shouldn’t vaccines be our government’s first priority for next year? Isn’t that (COVID-19) our biggest problem right now?” lawyer Barry Gutierrez said over dzXL on Sunday.

“All countries, all people around the world want to be vaccinated because of the big problem we are facing. So I wonder why it appears we are not acting that much. There’s no sense of urgency,” Gutierrez said.

He also expressed concerns about the lack of a definite source of funds to immunize around 60 million Filipinos next year.

“This is what Sen. Drilon was saying, it doesn’t seem to be a priority, even if it’s in the budget, P72 billion, it’s not clear where the money will come from,” Gutierrez said. – Helen Flores, Sheila Crisostomo