Philippines, US eye collaboration in vaccine manufacturing, distribution

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine and US governments are exploring areas of collaboration in vaccine manufacturing and distribution as jabs remain in limited supply amid the pandemic.

In a statement yesterday, the Philippine embassy in Washington said it recently organized a virtual forum with the US government to provide a platform for pharmaceutical and logistics companies to learn about the tools and products available through the US International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) and US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to support their growth and expansion plans across the entire vaccine development, manufacturing and distribution value chain.

The forum was also attended by officials of the Philippines’ Board of Investments, Department of Health, Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Food and Drug Administration and private sector participants including IG Biotech, Lloyd Laboratories, Unilab, Roche Philippines, Sydenham Laboratories, New Marketlink Pharmaceutical Corp., Royal Cargo, Philippine pharmaceutical industry associations, as well as cold chain and logistics firms.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the limited global supply of vaccines have magnified the importance of building domestic capacity that would ensure some degree of vaccine self-reliance critical to prepare countries to deal with future pandemics,” Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez said.

While Washington has provided assistance to the Philippines’ COVID-19 response through the additional P170-million funding from the US Agency for International Development to further support vaccine delivery through the COVAX Facility; empowerment of Filipino health workers; boosting of testing and treatment capabilities and the expansion of water, sanitation and hygiene services, DFC and USTDA see opportunities for collaboration in the vaccine space.

DFC, which partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the challenges faced by developing countries, launched the Global Health and Prosperity Initiative last year to encourage proposals from private sector firms in need of support for health-related investments.

“Through the initiative, our goal is to mobilize the private sector investment to support global health resilience worldwide. The agency is seeking to invest between $5 million and $500 million per eligible project through our agency’s full range of financial tools, and our goal in the next three years is to commit up to $2 billion across eligible projects,” Nafisa Jiwani, DFC managing director for health Initiatives, said.

Verinda Fike, USTDA regional director for Indo-Pacific, said the Philippines has grown to be the most active portfolio in Southeast Asia as the agency helps companies create US jobs through export of goods and services for development projects in emerging economies.

“We have so much demand that we are really working closely with the Philippine government currently to set up an office at the US embassy in Manila, hopefully by the end of this year,” Fike said.

The Philippines has come up with a vaccine development and manufacturing roadmap and is looking for suitable investment partners for technology transfer, capacity-building and financing.

Science Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said in the medium term, the DOST Pharma Center is seen to bridge the gap between academe and the industry for pharmaceutical development.

“We are also establishing the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines through a law,” Guevara said.

Involving the private sector can complement the aid efforts seen across the board and promote sustainable investments in preparedness and health care delivery in order to build resiliency to respond and prevent future outbreaks, Jiwani said, underscoring the critical role that the DFC plays.

DFC director for Indo-Pacific Erin Murphy expressed hope the beginning of the conversation would result in continued collaboration between the two countries to develop a resilient health care sector in the Philippines.