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KUALA LUMPUR (REUTERS) – Malaysia has agreed to buy 12.8 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer, becoming the first Southeast Asian country to announce a deal with the US drugmaker after some expressed reservations about the need. ultra-cold storage. .
While final trial data showed Pfizer’s vaccine to be 95% effective, many Asian countries are not betting on it in part due to tropical heat, remote island communities, and a lack of ultra-cold freezers.
The Pfizer vaccine, developed jointly with German partner BioNTech, must be stored and shipped at minus 70 degrees C, although it can be kept in a refrigerator for up to five days, or up to 15 days in an insulated shipping box.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Friday (November 27) that Malaysia would prioritize “high-risk groups … including the front-line, the elderly, and people with non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.” .
Pfizer will deliver the first million doses in the first quarter of 2021, with 1.7 million, 5.8 million and 4.3 million doses in the following quarters.
The deal is expected to cover 6.4 million Malaysians, or 20 percent of the population, and another 10 percent will be covered by Malaysia’s stake in the World Health Organization-backed Covax global facility. .
Malaysia, which will distribute the vaccine to its people for free, reported 1,109 new Covid-19 infections on Friday.
The country also plans to conduct a phase 3 trial of an experimental vaccine developed by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. The trial will have the participation of 3,000 participants.
Pfizer’s vaccine still requires approval from regulators, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Malaysian Ministry of Health before it can be distributed, Tan Sri Muhyiddin said during a televised speech.
The FDA plans a meeting on December 10 to discuss whether to authorize the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use.
Pfizer and BioNTech have supply agreements with several countries, including the United States, Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain.
They expect to produce up to 50 million doses of vaccines globally in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
More than 150 potential vaccines are being developed and tested globally to stop the Covid-19 pandemic, with 48 in human trials, the WHO says.
This week, AstraZeneca said its vaccine developed with the University of Oxford could be around 90 percent effective, following positive results from Pfizer, Moderna, and Sputnik V. of Russia.
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