Philippines to Buy 2 Million Doses of AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine
Philippines to Buy 2 Million Doses of AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine
(Bloomberg) -- The Philippines will sign on Friday an agreement to buy two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca Plc.
Included in the agreement are private companies that will help government fund the purchase, said Carlito Galvez, vaccine czar and chief implementer of policies to contain the outbreak. A similar arrangement can be done with other vaccine manufacturers if the transaction is non-profit and they can bring down prices, he said.
The government targets to vaccinate as many as 30 million people a year to reach its goal to inoculate 75% of the nation’s population, Galvez said. The vaccine rollout will probably start late second quarter due to constraints on global supply and distribution, he said.
Galvez on Wednesday said the Philippines, which has the second-worst outbreak in Southeast Asia, plans to buy as many as 50 million doses from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
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