Moderna to deliver 200K vax doses for PH by mid-June

MANILA – Moderna will start its vaccine rollout in the Philippines by mid-June with the delivery of an initial 200,000 doses, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said Tuesday.

“One thing for sure ‘yong bakuna natin na in-order, kinonfirm sa akin ng Moderna na (One thing for sure is the vaccine that we’ve ordered, Moderna confirmed that) they will start delivering starting June 15, that is the target date and then it will start increasing in the succeeding months,” he said in a pre-taped interview with Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.

While the first tranche of delivery is small, Romualdez assured that the bulk will start coming in on the third quarter of this year.

“Medyo maliit lang kasi they were able to get some vaccines that were available. Ito kasi galing sa Europe ito hindi galing sa America so we were able to secure something like close to 200,000 doses ng Moderna na mauuna diyan (It’s quite small because what they got are the ones already available. This is from Europe, not America, so we’re able to secure like close to 200,000 doses),” he said, adding that he is optimistic that Moderna will be able to complete the 20 million doses by end of the year.

Moderna has yet to apply for an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Romualdez added that the US government is also looking into Manila’s request to borrow its excess AstraZeneca vaccines, pegged at around 25 million doses.

“Again there are other countries who have been asking for the same thing. They’re already looking at it and studying the possibility of being able to advance these vaccines for the Philippines,” he said.

Aside from the two-dose vaccines, the envoy is also placing high hopes on Moderna’s booster shots, expected to be made available in America by the third quarter of 2021.

“Ito kung ma-approve ang EUA nito sometime around September babagay ‘yan sa mga dose that we’re able to take like Sinovac for instance or AstraZeneca (If this gets an EUA sometime around September, this will complement the doses that we’re able to take like Sinovac and AstraZeneca,” he said.

Moderna’s vaccine is more than 90 percent effective against coronavirus disease 2019 for up to six months after the second dose.

For Pfizer, Romualdez said the initial batch of 117,000 doses will “most likely be coming in next month” through the COVAX Facility.

He said there had been a delay in the delivery due to “some legal problems” on the indemnity agreement.

“So that one is being completed and hopefully next week si Sec. Carlito Galvez and Mark Joven, the undersecretary of Finance, would be able to complete that transaction,” he said.