MANILA, Philippines — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Department of Health to accept the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to be donated by Japan and the United States, respectively.
“Regarding AstraZeneca, this is the second most widely used vaccine that we have now in our country. We recently issued an EUA to the Department of Health for them to be able to accept donations from Japan,” FDA Director-General Eric Domingo said, speaking party in Filipino, in a taped briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte that aired Wednesday.
“Last week, we also issued an EUA to the Department of Health for possible donations coming from the USA of Janssen [from] Johnson & Johnson,” he added.
Japan aims to deliver the one million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines on July 8.
The Philippines also expects to receive up to one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the United States this month.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the country’s vaccine manager, previously said the US donation would likely be from Johnson & Johnson, a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.