THE Duterte administration still has no formal “supply agreement” covering delivery of the awaited Covid-19 vaccine supply, senators were told Tuesday, but vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. assured them they have term sheets that embody an initial “locked-in” arrangement of supply, and are looking at 108 million doses in all from these.
This, as senators and Executive officials agreed to push early passage of a law exempting local government units (LGUs) from certain provisions of the Procurement Act in order to shield them from legal liability as they fast-track moves to obtain vaccines for constituents.
Testifying before members of the Senate Finance Committee, Health Secretary Francisco Duque and Galvez Jr. admitted under questioning by senators that the Duterte administration has yet to sign a final supply deal with manufacturers of the vaccines.
Galvez, however, assured senators that negotiations are still ongoing to forge a final supply agreement for Sinovax, Covovax, Moderna and Astrazeneca.
The absence of any supply agreement means, according to Minority Leader Frank M. Drilon, that there is no firm commitment as yet of any vaccine coming to the country soon and the awaited supplies are all based on
Galvez’ good relations with suppliers.
Senators were told the only sure supply involved the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines expected to arrive on February 23. Such does not require any supply agreement because it is a donation of the China
government.
Galvez told senators that upon the Sinovac’s scheduled arrival on February 23, there will still be at least two to three days of technical inspection. This will be followed by the vaccination, assuming Sinovac gets its emergency use authorization (EUA) by that time.
Advance payment
Also at the marathon hearing presided by Finance committee chief Sen. Sonny Angara, Senate Bill 2042 authored by Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri drew unanimous support from both the executive and legislative, given the urgency of providing LGUs a means to justify – without running afoul of the procurement and related laws – making advance payments for vaccine orders, as they committed in tripartite agreements forged earlier with pharmaceutical firms and the national government. Most LGUs must make such advance payments later this month.
Besides the advance payments prohibition in the procurement law, the Zubiri bill also exempts LGUs from sticking to the “lowest-bid” provision of the law, given the unique circumstance of the pandemic, when “the cheapest may not be available” owing to the mad rush for vaccines globally. The bill, however, makes the exemption possible only until September 2020, and most senators are inclined to extend this by a few months more.
Quirino Gov. Dax Cua, president of the League of Provinces, said “our LGUs are willing to take risks” just to protect their people, “but huwag naman sanang makasuhan [but we hope they won’t end up with lawsuits].”
A similar sentiment was earlier aired by San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora when the CODE team of Galvez visited his city on Wednesday.
Later in the Senate Finance committee hearing, panel chair Angara asked Atty. Fortunata Rubico of the Commission on Audit (COA) for the agency’s view on the Zubiri bill (Sen. Imee Marcos has a similar measure). Rubico said the “COA has no comment” on the bill, but, as with the Bayanihan law, “will issue guidance for our auditors” once a law is enacted so they can properly implement it.
‘Beauty’ of tripartite
In his presentation, Galvez reiterated the “beauty of the tripartite setup,” especially now that all vaccines being secured for early rollout are covered only by emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), not a full commercial license yet.
First, Galvez said, the national government has better leverage in negotiating and, when the LGU orders are negotiated for as one, the NG can demand the lowest prices possible – a hard feat, given it is a sellers’ market worldwide as countries scramble to quickly roll out immunization drives to push back the spread of Covid-19.
Second, Galvez explained that pharmaceutical firms do not want to deal bilaterally with LGUs because they are looking for indemnification shields in case of adverse reactions, considering that their products are not yet completely ready for full commercial licensing and are covered just by EUAs.
“The EUA is not yet a full marketing approval,” Dr. Jaime Montoya of the Philippine Council for Health Research Development (PCHRD) weighed in, In effect, he said, the national government. in being party to the tripartite agreements, assumes the liability for adverse reaction for using vaccines covered only by EUA and not fully licensed.
Galvez said indemnification provisions are crucial for pharmaceutical firms still scarred by the “Sanofi episode” in the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia. The French pharma giant is facing lawsuits over allegations it rushed the rollout in. 2016 of Dengvaxia on 700,000 Filipinos without final conclusion of the last-stage clinical trials.
As to the question of how to fund indemnification provisions for Covid-19 vaccines, Minority Leader Drilon suggested tapping the Contingent Fund in the national budget for the purpose, given that the National Expenditure Program did not include such “because it wasn’t an issue yet” when the NEP was drawn up.
“The contingent fund is a correct fund for sourcing indemnification…we can earmark indemnification in the contingent fund,” said Drilon, a move backed by Sen. Risa Hontiveros.