Malacañang on Tuesday said that the country had secured a “firm commitment” from the US government with regards to Covid-19 vaccine supply.
“We have firm commitments from the United States, relayed to (Foreign Affairs) Secretary (Teodoro) Locsin by no less than Secretary Mike Pompeo, that we will have access po to Covid vaccines that may be developed in the United States,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said in a virtual presser.
American biotechnology company Moderna on Monday announced that the vaccine it was developing was 94.5-percent effective in clinical trials.
Last week, Pfizer, another American company, said its vaccine developed alongside BioNTech was “more than 90-percent effective in preventing Covid-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis.”
Roque said the progress in US vaccine development was “good news.”
“Anong ibig sabihin nito? Well, palapit na palapit na po ang pagkakaroon ng bakuna laban sa Covid-19,” he said.
Roque also said vaccines from China and the United Kingdom would also reach the Philippines.
“Nangako na rin po si President Xi sa ating Presidente mismo na magkakaroon po tayo ng supply na vaccine na madi-develop ng Tsina,” he said.
“Pagdating naman po sa Inglatera, ang AstroZeneca, sila daw po ay sisiguraduhin, sang-ayon po doon sa Covax agreement, e ang mahihirap na mga bansa hindi lang ang mga mayayaman ay magkakaroon po ng Covid vaccine,” he added.
Pfizer and BioNTech expect to produce globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
Moderna, meanwhile, said it aimed to manufacture between 500 million to one billion vaccine doses in 2021. John Ezekiel J. Hirro