Dang vicious noises
It is not “shooting darts” at the calendar as what pigheaded critics of President Rodrigo Duterte are claiming over the delays in the delivery of vaccines, which is the result of the extra care that drug companies apparently are taking in dealing with the Philippines.
Palace officials including Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. pointed to the yellow racket in the 2015 purchase of Dengvaxia doses for P3.5 billion, which is creating the headache for local officials in securing the supply.
World Health Organization (WHO) Philippine representative Rabindra Abeyansinghe has pointed to a conflict on essentially the waiver on responsibility of the manufacturer as what’s holding up the delivery of the serum primarily from Pfizer-BioNTech.
Nonetheless, a permanent indemnification law, which is now pending in Congress, will resolve the issue despite some misgivings raised on surrendering the right to run after the big drug firms in the event of serious lapses in the injected medication.
WHO’s top doctor said the indemnification law or agreement signed by the proper authority is expected by all vaccine manufacturers, since their formulas are currently emergency use-listed and they have not been given full market authorization.
“Many of these vaccines are still being evaluated for their side effects and severe adverse events and because of that, the manufacturers are asking for indemnification agreement and protection,” he explained.
WHO’s Covax Facility would be the source of the first batch of the jabs for the country. Abeyasinghe said Pfizer was not amenable to the standard Covax indemnification agreement, which the Philippines had agreed to. Instead, it wanted its own terms reflected in the agreement before shipping its serum to the country.
He said the agreement from Pfizer-BioNTech has not been sent out to “any of the countries that are eligible for early rollout,” but the American firm had already delivered to 38 countries, which are mostly from the First World. It was not clear from Abeyasinghe if the Philippines was singled out in the Pfizer requirement.
“Covax Facility and GAVI (the global vaccine alliance) are working very closely with Pfizer-BioNTech to make sure that they send out the indemnification agreement that is similar to the draf t that the Philippines has already signed according to an understanding,” the WHO official said.
Abeyansinghe said the agreement that the Covax Facility developed in conjunction with Pfizer did not satisfy the lawyers of the drug giant who will “give us their own indemnification agreement which recipient countries need to sign.”
The waiver is very specific “to be sent to countries receiving the vaccine through the Covax Facility and this is to my understanding where the delay is occurring.”
Based on the estimate of the WHO representative, with all the documentary hurdles, the first batch of 117,000 Pfizer vaccines will arrive late March at the earliest.
Better prospects other than Pfizer, however, provide hope for an earlier rollout. Abeyansinghe said on 15 February, WHO provided an Emergency Use listing for two AstraZeneca vaccines, which are being manufactured at the Serum Institute of India and SKBio in the Republic of Korea.
Something between 5.5 and 9.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured at the SKBio plant in South Korea has been committed to the Philippines, according to the WHO official, as he estimated that two-thirds of the supply will arrive in the first batch.
The Philippines has completed the indemnification agreement, the Food and Drug Administration license and the Emergency Use Authorization for AstraZeneca, which will be for Covax’s consideration.
While there’s emerging signs of nations that recorded the rate of infections on the downtrend after mass inoculation, such as in Israel, he said there is not enough evidence yet that the vaccines are effective in reducing transmission.
Even after vaccination, the requirement for physical distancing, the mask wearing and hand hygiene stays “until we have conducted an evaluation of what impact the vaccination is having on transmission of Covid.”
“But what we know is that the Covid vaccines that have been granted Emergency Use Listing are capable of preventing severe Covid and preventing deaths that we have all seen,” according to Abeyansinghe.
Contrary to the inutile demonizers, things are moving and the roadblocks should have been less had the P3.5 billion Dengvaxia hustle did not happen.
Even after vaccination, the requirement for physical distancing, the mask wearing and hand hygiene stays.
“WHO’s top doctor said the indemnification law or agreement signed by the proper authority is expected by all vaccine manufacturers.