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KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 22): The Covid-19 vaccine produced by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will have to go through a five-phase evaluation process in Malaysia before it can be approved for use by the public, CEO of Cheers, Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah told reporters yesterday.
And only the first phase of this process, which involves verifying the documentation submitted by Pfizer, can take, surprisingly, between 90 and 120 days.
This means that while countries like Britain, the US and Canada have already approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and are now conducting vaccination exercises on their citizens, Malaysians, it seems, will have to wait at least a few more months before. anyone can get their shots.
Meanwhile, our neighbor Singapore has joined the list of countries, including the European Union, that have approved the use of the vaccine. Last night, you received your first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines.
In Malaysia, Dr. Noor Hisham said that last Tuesday (December 15) the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) received the request from Pfizer to register its vaccine for use here.
“We have five phases. We may take 90-120 days to examine everything to make sure it is safe to use. That’s the first phase, ”explained Dr. Noor Hisham, adding that NPRA has identified 11 medical experts to investigate this.
“The second is to make sure we can purchase these vaccines and have the logistics to handle them. The third step is to prioritize certain groups, such as the front-line and vulnerable groups, ”said Dr. Noor Hisham.
The fourth stage is to verify the after-effects of the vaccine, while the final step is to assess its effectiveness in slowing the spread of Covid-19, he added.
However, at this point it is not known how long the entire five-phase process will take or if any of the phases or steps can be performed at the same time.
There is no denying the fact that the safety and efficacy of vaccines need to be thoroughly verified, especially due to some concerns that they may be rushed jobs. However, if certain steps can be taken simultaneously to shorten the wait time, then it should be done rather than stubbornly following a step-by-step process.
On November 24, the government through the Ministry of Health signed a preliminary purchase agreement with Pfizer to obtain 12.8 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to meet the immunization needs of 20% or 6.4 million of Malaysians.
Under this agreement, Pfizer has committed to deliver one million doses of its vaccine in the first quarter of 2021, 1.7 million doses in the second quarter, 5.8 million doses in the third quarter, and 4.3 million. dose in the last trimester.
The Malaysian government also announced, on December 19, an agreement with the UK’s AstraZeneca to purchase Covid-19 vaccines to meet the immunization needs of 20% of the country’s population.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Adham Baba said it was the third deal after the government signed with Covax to buy 10% of its vaccine needs and with Pfizer to cover 20% of Malaysia’s needs last month. .
Malaysia reported 2,018 new cases of Covid-19 today, bringing its national count of confirmed infections to 95,327.
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