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KUALA LUMPUR, November 27 – The pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer Malaysia said today that it has reached an agreement with Putrajaya to supply 12.8 million doses of its BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine that would work against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
In a statement, Pfizer country manager Luksanawan Thangpaibool said this will be subject to clinical success and regulatory approval.
“We are deeply honored to work with the Malaysian government and to pool our scientific and manufacturing resources towards our shared goal of bringing a potential Covid-19 vaccine to Malaysians as quickly as possible,” he said.
The initiative is a joint effort between Pfizer Malaysia and the German company BioNTech SE.
“In the face of this global health crisis, Pfizer’s purpose and life-changing advances have taken on even greater urgency.
“Our hope is that, subject to clinical and regulatory success, our vaccine will help make this happen,” Luksanawan said.
This comes as Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today that Malaysia has finalized an agreement to purchase 12.8 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc, which will begin shipping in the first quarter of next year.
The doses will be enough to vaccinate 6.4 million people, with the initial shipment of one million doses going to 500,000 front-line healthcare workers.
BioNTech Business and Commercial Director Sean Marett also thanked Putrajaya for his support and for trusting in the development of a vaccine that BioNTech believes has the potential to help address this global pandemic threat.
“Our goal remains to create a global supply of a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine for many people around the world, as quickly as we can,” he said.
Pfizer and BioNTech have also expressed interest in possibly supplying the Covax Facility, a mechanism established by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization.
Covax aims to provide governments, including those in emerging markets, with early access to a large portfolio of Covid-19 candidate vaccines using a range of technology platforms, produced by multiple manufacturers around the world.
Pfizer and BioNTech expect to produce globally up to 50 million doses of vaccines in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021, based on the assumption of positive data and the availability of the necessary manufacturing and safety data, as well as current projections.
The phase three clinical trial of the vaccine began on July 27 and to date has enrolled 43,661 participants. As of November 13, 41,135 had received a second dose of the candidate vaccine.
