MANILA - AstraZeneca will file an application for a certificate of product registration (CPR) "in a couple of weeks," Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said Friday.

A CPR would allow manufacturers to sell their products to the public.

Concepcion had led the private sector's procurement of AstraZeneca COVID-19 jabs in 2020 through a tripartite agreement.

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"Right now government guarantees anybody who gets sick they'll pay for it but that should stop because pharmaceutical companies are making money out of these vaccines so they should file CPR which AstraZeneca is filing within a couple of weeks they told me. Hopefully, Moderna and Pfizer [soon]," he told ANC's Headstart.

Concepcion said he has urged President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos to remove the country's alert level system and lift the public health state of emergency.

The Department of Health has said government has no authority to lift the public health state of emergency as it was the World Health Organization that declared it.

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Government can lift only the state of calamity it declared due to the pandemic, set to lapse in September after being twice extended, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said.

Lifting the state of calamity would invalidate the emergency use authorization of COVID-19 vaccines and drugs, she added.

For manufacturers to obtain CPRs, they need to finish the fourth phase of their clinical trial, Vergeire said.