(Eagle News) — The Philippines will get up to 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the Gavi COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access facility or COVAX, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. announced on Thursday, Jan. 21.
Galvez announced the development in a televised briefing.
While he did not specify which vaccine this was, he said it was “most likely” the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine.
“Siguro meron po tayong 30 to 40 million na doses for free para po sa lahat, sa ating mga kababayan,” he said.
Earlier, the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration said it issued an emergency use authorization for that particular vaccine manufactured by the American pharmaceutical company in partnership with the German biotechnology firm based in Mainz.
COVAX is one of three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.
It serves as a platform to support research, development and the manufacturing of a wide range of COVID-19 vaccine candidates, and negotiate their pricing.
The facility coordinated by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization, also helps ensure that countries get fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.