FILE PHOTO: Michelle Chester, DNP, director, employee health services, Northwell shows the Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at Northwell Health’s Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital in New York, U.S., December 21, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/Pool/File Photo
MANILA, Philippines — American biotechnology company Moderna is accelerating a huge shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said, citing information from Manila’s top diplomat in the United States.
Locsin made the announcement on Sunday, more than a week after Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose “Babe” Romualdez said Moderna and another company, Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc., are willing to supply up to 25 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines in the third quarter of 2021.
“More good news from Babe: Moderna on board and accelerating huge shipment. Everything’s falling back into place,” Locsin tweeted.
More good news from Babe: Moderna on board and accelerating huge shipment. Everything's falling back into place. We will have complete range of vaccines from least effective to most available for everyone to choose from. No vaccine will be mass deployed unless… https://t.co/WbIZW9jzd2
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) December 27, 2020
“We will have complete range of vaccines from least effective to most available for everyone to choose from,” he added.
Locsin added that a COVID-19 vaccine will not be “mass deployed” unless the “official recommending it for mass deployment is seen taking it himself.”
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin Jr. FILE PHOTO
“The only proof of the pudding is in the eating it oneself and no one else in his place until we see the side effects of the pudding if any,” Locsin said.
the official recommending it for mass deployment is seen taking it himself. The only proof of the pudding is in the eating it oneself and no one else in his place until we see the side effects of the pudding if any.
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) December 27, 2020
Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine earlier received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration.
This will enable the pharmaceutical firm to apply for an EUA in the Philippines.
The Philippine government and private companies signed a supply agreement with British drugmaker AstraZeneca involving at least two million doses.
Aside from AstraZeneca, the government is also looking into the vaccines of China’s Sinovac Biotech, Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute, and Pfizer from the US.
Earlier, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III received backlash after he allegedly “dropped the ball” in the Pfizer vaccine deal, which would have secured the delivery of 10 million doses of the company’s vaccine to the Philippines as early as January next year.