Malaysia inks pact with Pfizer to vaccinate 6.4 million citizens

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

The Malaysian National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency will evaluate the vaccine for its safety and efficacy before it is administered to the people starting next year, the minister said in a Facebook post.

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

Pfizer will deliver one million doses in the first quarter of 2021, followed 1.7 million in the second, 5.8 million in the third and 4.3 million in the final three months of the year, Malaysiakini reported earlier Friday, citing Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin at a press conference.

Malaysia also signed an accord with the Covax facility to provide vaccines for 10 per cent of the population.The two agreements are expected to guarantee access to Covid vaccines for 30 per cent of the citizens reported Malaysiakini.

Vaccines will be available to locals for free, while foreigners residing in Malaysia will have to pay for them. A detailed vaccine roll-out plan will be announced in January.

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Malaysia will conduct its first Covid-19 vaccine trial in December as part of a government-to-government agreement with China, Kini reported separately, citing Mr Muhyiddin. It will be a phase-III trial on a vaccine candidate developed by the Institute of Medical Biology Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Trial will involve 3,000 participants and will assess the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in development.

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