DOH giving Senate ‘googled’ Sinovac price makes Lacson highly suspicious

Sen. Panfilo Lacson during the hybrid hearing of the Committee of the Whole on the national Covid-19 vaccination program on January 11, 2021. Senate PRIB file photo / Joseph Vidal

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo Lacson doubts that the lack of available data led the Department of Health (DOH) to submit to the Senate last year an “unreasonably high” indicative price of China’s Sinovac vaccine.

“Unverified reports that some shenanigans working behind the scene might have fed the DOH the unreasonably high price of the Sinovac vaccine could lend credence to the attempt to dupe the Filipino taxpayers even during a pandemic,” Lacson said in a statement Monday.

“As early as Oct. 14, 2020, it was reported that the price of Sinovac vaccines in Indonesia was about P683. There is also a price range of P650 to P700 per dose that was relayed to us. This is quite far from the P3,629.50 submitted by the DOH to the Senate finance committee in December last year for the 2021 budget deliberations,” Lacson added.

When asked, Lacson told INQUIRER.net that the unverified information was relayed to him before Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, in a Senate hearing on Friday, said the indicative price of Sinovac submitted to the Senate last year was based on a googled news report.

Based on the submitted DOH list, the vaccine developed by Sinovac is the second most expensive, with a P3,629 price tag for two doses per person, next to Moderna, which costs around P3,904 to P4,504.

Duque had further explained that he was told that at that time, the DOH had no communications yet with any vaccine makers so it had to rely on the news report.

Still, Lacson, in his statement on Monday, deemed as “not totally acceptable” Duque’s explanation that they “googled” the price of Sinovac’s vaccine.

“The reason given that no other available data was available when they submitted to the Senate Finance Committee last December, hence they relied on Google, was not really the case as Indonesia had the P683 price as early as October 14,” the senator said in a message to INQUIRER.net.

“There is no saying though that Sec. Duque was complicit in whatever attempt, if any, at overpricing,” he added.

The price of Sinovac’s vaccine was the subject of controversy in the past weeks and was a prominent point of concern raised by senators during its inquiry into the government inoculation program.

Citing a confidentiality agreement, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. has refused to publicly divulge the exact price of the jab developed by Sinovac but said the price the Philippines was able to negotiate for the procurement of Sinovac vaccines will not exceed P700.

In a meeting last Wednesday, Galvez briefed Lacson, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and contact tracing czar Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong about the details of the government’s deals with Sinovac as well as other firms.

Galvez said the negotiated prices of the vaccines being procured by the government will be disclosed to the public in “due time.”

JPV