MANILA — Manila Mayor Isko Moreno on Tuesday showcased his meeting with the country’s executives representing pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. and announced he allocated an additional P50 million for the city’s supplemental budget which will be used to buy COVID-19 vaccine.

This, after Pfizer said Monday that the COVID-19 vaccine the company is currently developing was more than 90 percent effective.

Moreno said the meeting aimed to get the latest developments regarding Pfizer’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine.

“Kakatapos lang po ng ating pakikipagpulong sa top executives ng Pfizer sa ating bansa upang kumuha ng update sa developments ng bakuna laban sa COVID-19,” Moreno said in a Facebook post.

(We just finished meeting with Pfizer’s top executives in our country to get updates on the COVID-19 vaccine.)

“Muli nating ipinaalam sa kanila ang kahandaan ng Pamahalaang Panglunsod ng Maynila na bumili ng inisyal na P250 milyon (additional 50m) na halaga ng bakuna mula sa kanila para sa mga taga Maynila,” he added.

(We informed them of the readiness of the City of Manila to buy P250 million worth of vaccine from them for the city’s residents.)

In August, the mayor said he signed Ordinance No. 8659, allocating P200 million worth of supplemental budget for 2020 for the purchase of vaccines once these become available.

• City of Manila allocates P200 million for COVID-19 vaccine

Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE are considered the first drugmakers to release successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine.

The companies said they have so far found no serious safety concerns and expect to seek U.S. authorization this month for emergency use of the vaccine.

Pfizer and BioNTech have a $1.95 billion contract with the US government to deliver 100 million vaccine doses beginning this year.

They have also reached supply agreements with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan.

• Pfizer, BioNTech say their COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective

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