Malaysia Secures 12.8 Million Doses Of Pfizer Vaccine, Delivery From First Quarter

Malaysia signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc.to obtain its Covid-19 vaccine for 20% of the population, or about 6.4 million people, according to the nation's Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

The prime minister gave the assurance that the vaccine to be used in Malaysia must meet the conditions set by the Health Ministry's National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA), adding that the government will never compromise on the matter.

Pfizer earlier this month announced its vaccine was 95% effective at preventing the disease after undergoing a third phase clinical trial on 43,998 people worldwide, including children and the elderly, Khairy said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has said the US expects to see 40 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine available by the end of December.

The prime minister said the government had signed two agreements for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.

The tool provides a roadmap for countries to plan for Covid-19 vaccine introduction and covers 10 key areas: Planning and co-ordination, resources and funding, vaccine regulations, service delivery, training and supervision, monitoring and evaluation, vaccine logistics, vaccine safety and surveillance.

Muhyiddin also stressed the importance of collaborative efforts involving countries in the region to fight Covid-19 and revive the economy, as well as ensuring equitable access to the vaccine.

It will be a phase-III trial on a vaccine candidate developed by the Institute of Medical Biology Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

"An 80 percent weightage shows a country can safely deploy a vaccine with maximum safety while the current 33 percent weightage for Africa means that countries need to bring up the areas of immunisations that are still lagging behind", said Dr Richard Mihigo, WHO's Program Area Manager, Immunisation and Vaccine Development.