NTF says pharma companies prefer to deal with gov’t

MANILA – The government is open to entering into tripartite deals for the second wave procurement of coronavirus jabs but vaccine makers prefer bilateral negotiations, National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Sunday.

In a virtual presser, Galvez acknowledged the positive results of tripartite agreements with the private sector and local government units (LGUs) but vaccine manufacturers they have dealt with favor bilateral talks due to challenges in shipping small volumes of Covid-19 jabs.

“Ang concentration ng mga manufacturer, mas gusto nilang makipag-deal sa government kasi in bulk ‘yung order. Sa tripartite kasi, nasa 20,000 or 30,000 lang. Nahihirapan silang i-manage (The concentration of the manufacturers as of now is they want to deal with the government for bulk orders of vaccines. Unlike in tripartite, they are having difficulties in dealing with only 20,000 or 30,000 doses),” he said.

He advised LGUs and the private sector to focus their budget next year on procuring ancillary supplies such as syringes and cold chain storage equipment.

“Sila na lang ang bumili ng tinatawag na syringes o ng mga cold chain at national government na lang ang bahala sa (They can buy syringes or cold chain storage and the national government will take care of) vaccine procurement,” he said.

Galvez said most LGUs trust the national government is capable of acquiring larger volumes of Covid-19 vaccines.