Businessmen eye buying Covaxin COVID-19 jabs for private sector, help augment PH vaccine supply

MANILA—A group of local businessmen is interested in ordering Covaxin, the COVID-19 vaccine made by India’s Bharat Biotech, in a bid to augment the country’s limited supply and to vaccinate some of the private sector’s employees, one of the country's presidential advisers has said.

In a statement, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said he has met with Ambica International Corp. and IP Biotech, distributors of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech, the Indian biotechnology company developing Covaxin.

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Concepcion added that his non-profit organization Go Negosyo and his office would help to bring Covaxin in the Philippines as the country faces limited COVID-19 vaccine supply.

“The private sector purchases from AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Novavax will be augmented by these new vaccines that will come from India, the Covaxin. This vaccine is promising, as it was the one used by India’s Prime Minister, PM Narendra Modi, and has posted 81% efficacy from the interim results of its phase 3 trial. It is now only awaiting FDA’s approval,” Concepcion explained.

• READ: Private sector to procure up to 3 million vaccine doses, says presidential adviser
• READ: Ilang negosyanteng Fil-Chinese balak mag-order ng COVID-19 vaccines para sa mga empleyado

He also said his group would finalize the listing of orders by next week, as this will augment its earlier orders of British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca’s coronavirus jabs.

FIL-CHINESE BUSINESSMEN’S SINOVAC ORDERS PUSHED BACK

Meanwhile, the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII) said Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccines that the organization ordered would likely arrive in April instead of this month.

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The federation’s chairman emeritus, Francis Chua, said the group has yet to obtain the tripartite agreement from the government, a requirement in the private sector when ordering vaccines.

• READ: Fil-Chinese business group inks deal with Sinovac for COVID-19 vaccine doses worth P325-M

The group in late February said it signed an agreement with the Beijing-based firm to get some 500,000 doses priced at P1,000 each dose, equivalent to about P500 million.

The cost is inclusive of logistics expenses, Chua said.

He also pointed out that more Filipino businessmen would likely order from Sinovac once their initial batch of vaccines meant for the private sector arrives in the country.

On February 28, the Philippines received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine from China's Sinovac Biotech, with 600,000 doses. Through the vaccine-sharing COVAX facility, some 526,000 vaccines from AstraZeneca arrived few days later.

Faced with surging coronavirus infections, the country aims to vaccinate up to 70 million of its 108 million people this year to achieve herd immunity and reopen the economy.