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The Philippines will begin talks with Moderna Inc. on or before Dec. 30 to secure the company’s supply of the company’s coronavirus vaccine, Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. said Monday.
“Moderna is interested in giving an assignment,” she said in an interview broadcast live with CNN Philippines, citing the Philippine ambassador to the United States, José Manuel Romualdez.
The Philippines also has secured 30 million doses of Novavax Inc.’s Covid-19 candidate vaccine, which will be produced by the Serum Institute of India, Locsin said. It would be available in July, “possibly without a cash advance,” he said, and the “term sheet could be signed before the end of the year.”
The Locsin announcements come on the heels of frenzied exchanges between government officials and critics, after the DFA chief tweeted last week that someone had “dropped the ball” in negotiations to obtain 10 million doses of vaccine. from Pfizer, thus delaying the deadline for a crucial shipment. .
Romualdez had been in contact with Pfizer and Moderna since Locsin secured a pledge from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the US will help Manila get vaccines as nations race in a race to get the first shots against the deadly infection.
