Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine was “too expensive” and “very problematic”, according to vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. on Thursday said that procuring the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine would be “very problematic” because of its hefty price.
Galvez said in a text message that the price of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine was “too expensive” at $76, adding that the price of the said vaccine would be “seven times higher than AstraZeneca” even if they could cut the price of the said vaccine in half.
“It doesn’t make sense to buy Sinopharm when you can buy [an] equally safe and effective brand from China and from [the] US with [the] same or higher effects and efficacy,” Galvez said.
Galvez also said that Sinopharm would be “very problematic” in terms of “equitable access”, “cost efficiency”, and “sense of fairness”.
READ ALSO: Sotto Convinced By Galvez On Non-Disclosure Agreements Of Vaccine Deals
Officials of MKG Corporation — the local distributor of Sinopharm — will face the Senate inquiry into the Philippines’ COVID-19 vaccination program after it said that the Department of Health failed to act on Sinopharm’s application to conduct human clinical trials in the country.
The Department of Health has denied the allegations and said that the Philippines’ participation in human clinical trials — including Sinopharm’s — was approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) in May.
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