Iloilo City allots P5M for COVID-19 pills

Iloilo City will purchase COVID-19 pills in 2020 to further boost its response to the pandemic.

Mayor Jerry Treñas said the city government has allotted P5 million in the city’s 2022 budget for the procurement of the breakthrough pills.

In an interview with a local radio station, the mayor revealed that he is waiting for the approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill in the country before finally deciding on the quantity of the pills that the city will purchase.

Currently, the experimental oral drug named Molnupiravir produced by Merck & Co., and Ridgeback is the first oral drug clinically proven to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 by approximately 50 percent.

The pill can be made available through compassionate special permits issued by the Food and Drug Administration.

Recently, the Roxas City sought special permits for the purchase of the oral drug Molnupiravir which was granted a special permit by FDA, thereby making it the first local government unit (LGU) in the region to avail of the oral drug against Covid-19.

Pfizer has developed its own antiviral COVID pill called Paxlovid but it has yet to secure authority from the FDA for emergency use authorization in the country. (ERS)