The volume of coronavirus vaccines that the Philippines will procure is to be determined by the assessment of the vaccine expert panel.
According to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr., the brands of vaccines will be ranked by the expert panel. The ranking will be based on the criteria set by the government’s vaccine expert panel that took into consideration the safety and cost-efficiency of a vaccine.
“Iyong pitong options na tinitingnan namin ay based sa criteria na binigay ng vaccine expert panel and from there kapag binigyan ng rank ng VEP, binibigyan namin ngweight iyong nasa taas,” Galvez explained.
More volumes of the brand that ranks higher will be ordered, Galvez added.
He said based on the ranking, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine placed first. Sinovac, Moderna, and AstraZeneca completed the top four.
So far, authorities have secured about 25 million doses of Sinovac’s vaccine, with the first 50,000 to arrive on Feb. 20, followed by 950,000 doses in March.
Some 17 million doses of UK’s AstraZeneca vaccine purchased through tripartite agreements are also expected to arrive first in the country.
Meanwhile, Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is expected within the first quarter, while vaccines from Moderna are expected to arrive in May.
