MANILA, Philippines — British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca is no longer accepting any new orders for its coronavirus vaccine due to supply constraints, an adviser to President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday.
Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion, who is leading negotiations between the government, the private sector and AstraZeneca, said he was told by the drugmaker that its coronavirus supply is already dwindling.
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“They (AstraZeneca) cannot supply anymore,” Concepcion said in Filipino in a briefing aired on state-run People’s Television. “They don’t want to supply us because they do not have enough to supply Europe.”
Prior to this, the Philippine government and over 300 private companies have signed a deal with AstraZeneca for 17 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine. Concepcion said this is the “last order.”
With this development, Concepcion said the private sector is now eyeing to procure coronavirus vaccine doses from United States biotechnology company Novavax, which reported that its shot has an 89.3% efficacy rate.
The country is scrambling to finalize deals with various coronavirus vaccine manufacturers as it aims to inoculate 70 million adult Filipinos within the year.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque presented on Tuesday that there are up to 171 million doses of coronavirus vaccines in the “pipeline,” among of which are 17 million doses from AstraZeneca and 30 million doses from Novavax.
Aside from these, Roque said the country will receive 44 million vaccine doses from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility, 25 million doses from China’s Sinovac Biotech, 10 to 15 million doses from Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, 20 million doses from Moderna, 15 million doses from Pfizer, and five million from Johnson and Johnson.
AstraZeneca’s jab, developed along with the University of Oxford, has received an emergency use authorization from the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration, while Novavax has yet to receive the same approval. — Xave Gregorio