Malaysia Inks Pact With Pfizer to Vaccinate 6.4 Million Citizens
Malaysia Inks Pact With Pfizer to Vaccinate 6.4 Million Citizens
(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc. to obtain its Covid-19 vaccine for 20% of the population as it battles a resurgence of coronavirus infections.
The accord for 12.8 million doses to inoculate 6.4 million people is contingent on Pfizer’s vaccine being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Malaysia’s drug regulator, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised conference Friday. The doses will cover 6.4 million people.
New daily infections in Malaysia hit a record high of 2,188 on Tuesday, of which more than half came from a cluster linked to the worker dormitories of Top Glove Corp. -- the world’s largest maker of surgical gloves -- and threaten the $365 billion economy just when it is showing signs of improvement.
The struggle to stem the spread has put Malaysia behind Indonesia in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking, which gauges countries’ success in fighting the virus with minimal social and business disruptions. The latter is ranked 19th -- 10 places above Malaysia -- despite it being Southeast Asia’s virus hotspot.
Indonesia has orders with at least four vaccine suppliers, including Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and AstraZeneca Plc, whose shots are in late-stage trials. That access ranks the country second in Asia after China and on par with Japan and India for securing much-anticipated immunizations, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Pfizer earlier this month announced its vaccine was 95% effective at preventing the disease. The U.S. drugmaker will deliver to Malaysia one million doses in the first quarter of 2021, 1.7 million in the second, 5.8 million in the third and 4.3 million in the final three months of the year, Muhiyddin said.
- Malaysia also signed an accord with the Covax facility to provide vaccines for 10% of the population, Malaysiakini reported Friday, citing the premier
- The two pacts are expected to help immunize 30% of citizens: 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.
- 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 Muhyiddin.
- It will be a phase-III trial on a vaccine candidate developed by the Institute of Medical Biology Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
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