Negotiations for purchase of 90M vax doses underway: NTF

Manila, Nov. 28 -- The National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 said negotiations for the procurement of 90 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine with pharmaceutical companies are underway.

Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the NTF chief and vaccine czar, said Sunday the government is on its second wave of vaccine procurement deals with Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Gamaleya Research Institute.

Novavax, another American biotechnology company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, received its EUA (emergency use authorization) this month and Galvez said it is still part of the negotiations.

He said the government is working to utilize the USD45 million (around PHP2.2 billion) funding earmarked for 2022 ...