Vaccine prices can’t be disclosed yet due to NDA: Duterte

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night said non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) prevent the government from revealing the exact price of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines from suppliers.

In a pre-recorded address, Duterte said the NDA is “always included” in the preliminary contracts with pharmaceutical companies.

An NDA protection includes protecting medical trade secrets, special prices given to a particular country, the timeline of the vaccine, any other involved in recommending or guaranteeing the deal, or any other arrangements, he added.

“Every negotiation ibang agreement na naman ‘yan (would be another agreement). It does not involve money. But one thing is certain: you cannot divulge the contract price agreed upon,” he said.

Duterte pointed out that signing an NDA is a “practice of the industry” since many countries are scrambling to meet the scale of demand for Covid-19 vaccine supply.

“They cannot reveal the price kasi it will resort na malugi ‘yung iba — in some countries malugi sila, ‘yung ibang countries, hindi pare-pareho (because some countries will be at the losing end),” he said.

He noted that disclosing the vaccine prices before deals are finalized would be an issue of credibility and may affect the reputation of the government.

“Any other deal that you may enter in the future, again it will suffer a snag because they cannot really wait or they refuse to find out why this peculiar thing about non-disclosure is always included in the preliminary contracts that you sign with the manufacturers,” he said.

Despite being bound by NDAs, Duterte allayed concerns that there would be anomalies in vaccine procurement.

He also challenged “doubting Thomases” to handle the vaccine procurement instead, saying the government would even hand them their plans.

“Walang magic diyan. Kaya sabi ko nga eh kayong mga doubting Thomases, kung gusto ninyo, kayo na lang. I-surrender namin lahat ‘yung ano ang (There’s no magic there. That’s why I’m telling you doubting Thomases, if you want, you do it yourselves. We’ll surrender everything) so far what we have accomplished. You can form a committee or create a committee by a body — tingnan ninyo ang labas-labasan ganoon rin (and you’ll see you have to comply with the non-disclosure agreement),” he said.

Duterte said the vaccine supply agreements would be final only after he and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez have reviewed and approved the proposal.

“Hindi iyan mabayaran hanggang hindi dumaan kay Dominguez pati sa akin (That won’t be paid for until it goes through Dominguez and myself),” he said.

Meanwhile, Duterte ordered vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. to ignore congressional probes and just proceed with the government’s vaccine plan.

“Now, I’m telling now General Galvez ‘yung game plan niya sundin niya (just follow your game plan). With or without the investigation, proceed and implement what we planned to do kasi pinagpaguran mo ‘yan (because you worked hard for it). Never mind about the investigation kasi mas lalong matagalan tayo kung nandiyan na ‘yung bakuna magdating na (because we will encounter delays once the vaccine arrives),” he said.

Galvez, who was also present in the meeting with Cabinet members, also assured that the vaccine supply deal is “clean.”

“Wala po tayong hinahawakan na pera. Ang pera po ang magbabayad po bangko. Alam po natin ang transaction ng bangko talagang malinis po ‘yan. Kumbaga sa ano, hindi po tayo makaka — makaka ano, magkakaroon ng tinatawag nating corruption because of the World Bank integrity at saka po ‘yung Asian Development Bank (We’re not in charge of dealing with money. The money will be paid through banks. We know that bank transactions are really clean. There won’t be corruption because of the integrity of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank),” he said.

The Philippines aims to secure 148 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from several companies to inoculate an initial 50 to 70 million Filipinos this year, with the first doses of China’s Sinovac expected to arrive by February.