MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has signed Indemnification Agreements with drugmakers Pfizer and AstraZeneca under the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez disclosed Wednesday.
Once signed, an indemnification agreement "holds a business or company harmless" in case of unexpected adverse events.
Related Stories
Speaking at the Laging Handa briefing Wednesday, Galvez, who also serves as the chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said that manufacturers were concerned with the country's previous experiences with the Dengvaxia vaccine.
"All of the manufacturers, they are requiring an indemnity agreement in all the contracts we're signing. That's included there, non-disclosure and indemnity," the country's vaccination chief said in mixed Filipino and English.
"So for all of the vaccines, not just the COVAX, the indemnification clause is really required...They're still contemplating what the final mutual agreement will be [with regards to] indemnification," he also said, adding that these negotiations were the source of the latest delay.
Galvez added that the Philippines was talking to other foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, China, Russia, India for faster delivery of COVID-19 vaccines
Earlier, the Food and Drug Administration also disclosed that the national government is establishing a similar indemnity fund for those who will be inoculated primarily because the COVID-19 vaccines are still underdeveloped.
FDA chief Eric Domingo added that in exchange for this, the vaccine companies have asked to be free of responsibility for adverse reactions or side effects.
READ: How the Dengvaxia scare helped erode decades of public trust in vaccines
A 2018 study of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine noted that the country’s “highly-politicized response” to the reported risks posed by Dengvaxia has eroded overall public trust in immunization.
As of the health department's latest case bulletin issued Tuesday afternoon, exactly 552,246 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the country since the virus first emerged in December 2019.
"From what we see, our agreement with Pfizer will most likely push through," Galvez also said when asked what would happen if the US drugmaker did not sign the indemnity agreement.
He also assured the public that the deal was not endangered by the latest discussions on indemnification.
— Franco Luna with a report from The STAR