DOH insists no talks of COVID vaccine shipment, supply with Pfizer
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday disclosed that there were no discussions regarding shipment and supply of COVID-19 vaccine when officials were tackling a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA) with the American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer.
“During that time when we were discussing this CDA with Pfizer group, wala pong usapan ng shipment. Walang usapan na supply. Wala pong usapan na number of doses (no talks of shipment, no talks of supply. No talks of number of doses),” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online press conference when asked about what really happened in the Pfizer vaccine deal.
“We were discussing then, and actually it was very generic iyong pag-uusap din na wala pang CDA. This is really for data sharing. Kaya kami nag-CDA noon para maumpisahan ang pag-uusap at matingnan na rin ng ating eksperto iyong kanilang mga dokumento [our talks were very generic when there was still no CDA. That is why we came to the point of CDA before in order to start the talks and so that our experts can check the documents needed for this], but nothing has been given to us as information when it comes with this operational details,” she added.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has been put again in the limelight after he was accused of failing to secure a vaccine deal with Pfizer. Senator Panfilo Lacson said Duque missed out to acquire the 10 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine in January.
But Duque already answered the allegations, saying he did not “drop the ball” in acquiring the vaccine because the negotiations with Pfizer are still ongoing.
