The Parañaque City government has allocated P250 million and an additional P1 billion “standby” fund to procure their own vaccine for COVID-19. Mayor Edwin Olivarez said he wanted the city government to directly negotiate with Belgium-based Janssen Pharmaceutica to purchase doses of its vaccine once it is approved by the Food and Drug Authority (FDA). Janssen is the first among the three pharmaceutical firms to conduct clinical trials of its candidate vaccine in the country. The other two with pending application at the FDA were Clover Biopharmaceuticals and Sinovac Biotech, both based in China. —DEXTER CABALZA
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