Concepcion: Business sector remains confident with Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine

MANILA, Philippines – Following the various reports that link AstraZeneca to cases of thromboembolic events, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo Founder Joey Concepcion highlighted that current reports indicate no correlation between AstraZeneca shots and blood clots cases.

“WHO officials are currently investigating the matter to gain a full understanding of the events while the European Medicines Agency (EMA) stressed that there is no indication that the AstraZeneca shot is causing blood clots,” Concepcion stated.

“The adverse events which are reported after vaccination have to be seen in the context of events which occur naturally in the population. Just because it’s reported following a vaccination doesn’t mean that it’s because of the vaccination. It could be completely unrelated,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist, forwarded.

“With Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, they have stated that the reports of blood clots received so far are not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally in the vaccinated population—leading to a consensus that the benefits continue to outweigh the risks, which EMA, the Department of Health, and Philippine Food and Drug Administration shares,” Concepcion noted.

Currently, the DOH and FDA see no reason to stop the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Various government agencies are continuously coordinating and monitoring these matters and WHO’s recommendations after their investigation would hopefully shed the light on this matter.

“WHO is very much aligned with the position that we should continue immunization until we have clarified the causal relationship,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health, stated.

The country is expected to continuously receive its remaining doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX facility following the first batch and second batch which was received just a few weeks ago. This will also be augmented by the arrival of the donation from the private sector through the ‘A Dose of Hope’ initiative of Concepcion and Go Negosyo—a program that pioneered the tripartite agreement which connected the private sector, the public sector, and vaccine manufacturers. This initiative is expected to provide the country a total of 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“Adding to the doses that are coming from the COVAX facility, we are expecting the first batch of doses that we procured through the ‘A Dose of Hope’ around May to June, this would be around 2.6 million doses. For the second batch, the remaining 14.5 million doses, it is expected to arrive in the third quarter. This second batch includes the orders from our 240 donor companies and 39 LGUs. Half of all the doses procured by the private sector will be donated to the government for its frontline workers while the other half is for the private sector’s economic frontliners,” Concepcion highlighted.