Private sector to start receiving AstraZeneca vax

MANILA – The first batch of AstraZeneca vaccine ordered by the private sector will arrive on Friday morning via Thai Airways, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said.

In a television interview Tuesday, Concepcion said a total of 1.17 million doses of vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) will be delivered this month and the same number of doses will arrive in the country in August.

The AstraZeneca vaccine ordered by the private sector will come from Thailand, he added.

“All vaccines will start arriving this July, about 1.17 million, and in August another 1.17 million, and that will ramp up. This will end by next year; the delivery period ends sometime February 2022,” Concepcion said.

These vaccines of the private sector come from the “A Dose of Hope” initiative led by Concepcion.

It was a tripartite agreement among the private sector composed of over 330 companies, the government, and biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.

Concepcion said under the program, the private sector got the vaccine for USD5, or around PHP250 per dose.

The private sector purchased 2.6 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in November 2020 and another 17 million doses January this year.

Under the deal, the private sector agreed to donate half of the orders to the national government to help in accelerating the immunization program.

In the same program, Employers Confederation of the Philippines president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said the national government has saved money in vaccine procurement with the donation from the private sector.

“I think the entry of the private sector is a big help to the government. Without Joey and other taipans (Filipino-Chinese tycoons), our vaccine situation now would be very difficult,” Ortiz-Luis said.