The Malaysian Insight

MALAYSIA expects to take delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the first quarter of next year, said Science, Technology and Innovations Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

The supply will be sufficient for the immunisation of 6.4 million people.

“It will come up to 12.8 million doses to meet the immunisation needs of 20%, or 6.4 million, Malaysians,” said the Rembau MP during ministers’ question time (MQT) this morning in parliament.

The Covid-19 Vaccine Supplies Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) has been set up to ensure the shots  are obtained promptly and safely, he added.

The committee is co-chaired by Khairy and Health Minister Dr Adham Baba and made up of representatives of various government agencies.

He said JKJAV would prepare a distribution plan for the vaccine when it was approved for use in Malaysia.

Khairy said Malaysia had joined the Covax facility for guaranteed access to a vaccine supply for 10% of the country’s population.

JKJAV was currently considering other vaccine candidates in phase 3 of clinical trials, he said.

Khairy said this in response to Lim Guan Eng (Bagan-PH) who asked for the implementation plan for vaccination and assurance in regard to the safety of the vaccine. Lim also asked if the government had considered other vaccines produced by other companies.

The Health Ministry signed an early recovery agreement on November 24 with Pfizer to procure a vaccine.

Khairy said the vaccine selection was based on an interim report of clinical trials and it was published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Dec 10, 2020 showing that the vaccine to have 95% effectiveness in preventing Covid-19 infection.

“These vaccines have also received emergency authorisation from seven countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Singapore.

“However, the decision to use the vaccine in Malaysia is still subject to registration and approval from the national pharmaceutical regulatory agency (NTRA) of the Ministry of Health. This process has begun and all data supplied by Pfizer will be scrutinised by NTRA,” Khairy said.

 Lim also asked if the MPs would be the first to be inoculated to show leadership by example.

“This is a good suggestion, a priority list of who will receive the vaccine first will be announced in the near future,” Khairy said. – December 17, 2020.