COVID-19 vaccine cluster formed; vaccine czar’s duties laid down

November 6, 2020

The Philippine government has formed a cluster to handle the coronavirus disease vaccine headed by vaccine czar National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr.

The creation of the COVID-19 Vaccine Cluster was approved during a meeting on Thursday of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

"The COVID-19 Vaccine Cluster is separate from the Response Cluster.  It has Executive Committee Members and Advisory Groups, Different Task Groups, with specific roles and responsibilities," said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in the "Laging Handa" press briefing.

"As a result of this restructuring, the COVID-19 Immunization Program Management Organizational Structure, which was approved under IATF Resolution No. 82 last October 26, 2020 was abolished," he said.

Meanwhile, Roque said Galvez, as vaccine czar, has the following duties: stewardship, where he will coordinate across various agencies, actors, and technical working groups on behalf of the Department of Health; safety and efficacy, where he will facilitate the early issuance of the Certificate of Product Registration with the Food and Drugs Administration; and cost-effectiveness, where he will facilitate the timely conduct of Health Technology Assessment, as necessary.

Galvez's other tasks include: price negotiation, where he will activate price negotiation board subject to HTA’s cost-effective price; prioritization, where he will facilitate consensus on prioritization of vaccine recipients; delivery system, where he will facilitate decision on whether to use private system, develop protocol on accessing vaccines and registration with primary health care providers with health care provider networks, practice guidelines; and surveillance, where he will set up Adverse Events Following Immunization.

Also part of the duties of the vaccine czar are financing and co-payments, where he will coordinate with the Department of Budget and Management and legislators, as may be necessary, on budget and co-payment ceilings; procurement, where he will facilitate procurement through various mechanisms allowed under existing laws, rules and regulations through bilateral, multilateral and other financial modalities; supply and logistics movement, where he will enter into agreement with third party warehouse and logistics provider, as necessary; information systems, where he will establish the information and technology infrastructure to capture supply chain information as well as to capture system for the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine; and risk communication and community engagement where he will oversee vaccine risk communication and social preparation and act as spokesperson for vaccine matters.

The government has expressed hope that developers and manufacturers abroad will soon make available in the market the COVID-19 vaccines. Celerina Monte/DMS