The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aims to release its decision on the emergency use authorization (EUA) of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine by January 14, its chief said on Wednesday.

“Kahapon po, nagbigay ng konting mga katanungan yung ating mga eksperto na pinadala natin sa Pfizer. At binigyan ko sila ng 48 hours to reply and to give us the information requested by our panel,” FDA Director General Eric Domingo said in a televised Laging Handa briefing.

(Yesterday, our experts raised a few questions that were sent to Pfizer. We gave them 48 hours to reply and give the information requested by our panel.)

Domingo added that Pfizer would return the information to them by January 10, and a few days after that, the FDA can finally make a decision on Pfizer’s EUA application.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will likely be available in the Philippines by the third or fourth quarter of 2021 as it is the “most in-demand” vaccine brand, said vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.

Pfizer was recently granted emergency validation by the World Health Organization (WHO), paving the way for countries to quickly approve the import and administer the vaccine.

Aside from Pfizer, multinational firm AstraZeneca has also applied for the emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines.

---

Gillian Angnged