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MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will be able to obtain between four and 25 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna Inc and Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc, the Southeast Asian country’s ambassador in Washington said on Friday.
US companies were ready to supply the vaccines from the third quarter of 2021, Philippine Ambassador José Manuel Romualdez said in a statement if his government considered their proposals acceptable.
“We hope that our government will consider the promising candidates from Moderna and Arcturus for inclusion in our country’s pool of anti-COVID-19 vaccines,” said Romualdez.
The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to grant the Moderna emergency use authorization soon. Arcturus expects to begin shipping its vaccine in the first quarter of next year after the early stages of trials showed promising results.
Moderna and Arcturus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a press conference, Philippine Health Ministry Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire welcomed signs of progress in the negotiations, but said that each candidate vaccine would need to obtain regulatory approval to ensure safety and efficacy.
The Philippines plans to purchase 25 million doses of a vaccine supplied by China’s Sinovac Biotech for delivery in March. Additionally, the private sector agreed last month to purchase 2.6 million injections of a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in the country’s first supply deal for a coronavirus vaccine.
The Southeast Asian nation had missed an opportunity to buy 10 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer for delivery in January, Romualdez said.
With 454,447 infections and 8,850 deaths, the Philippines has reported the second highest number of COVID-19 infections and victims in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia. —Report by Neil Jerome Morales Ed Davies Editing
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