KUALA LUMPUR – The government has just signed a deal with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and is in the midst of finalising agreements with three others, to procure Covid-19 vaccines.
These, plus the deals already inked with Pfizer and the Covax initiative, will see Malaysia obtaining doses for over 80% of the population – at a total price of RM2.05 billion.
The figure is less than the RM3 billion that Putrajaya had allocated earlier for doses to cover 70% of the population.
In an announcement today, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he will be among the first in the country to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, in a bid to allay public concerns over its safety and efficacy.
Others include frontliners and high-risk groups.
Muhyiddin said the agreement with AstraZeneca is to procure 6.4 million doses to cover a tenth of the Malaysian population.
This is on top of the previous deals signed with Pfizer-BioNTech and global vaccine development platform Covax. The Pfizer agreement and Covax initiative will cover 20% and 10% of the population, respectively.
“We are also in the process of final negotiations with Sinovac, CanSino and Gamaleya that will guarantee us vaccine supply for over 80% of our population, or about 26.5 million (people),” said Muhyiddin in a video message uploaded to Astro Awani’s Twitter account.
“The government will continue to negotiate with other pharmaceutical companies to ensure we have enough free guaranteed vaccine access for all Malaysians.
“To convince the public that the vaccines are safe and efficient, I will be among the first individuals to receive the jab. This will be followed by frontliners, before they are given to high-risk groups.”
He said the new deals will give added value to the local science and technology sector, benefit the people, and help develop the country.
Local players will get the opportunity to bottle the vaccines, and conduct research, information sharing and technology transfer, among others.
Muhyiddin said the first batch of Pfizer’s vaccines will be rolled out to the masses as early as February.
Meanwhile, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, in a tweet, said he hopes the prime minister’s announcement will clear up misinformation regarding the government’s procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.
Following a recent blunder by a Belgian minister that revealed the price of Pfizer’s vaccines, Khairy yesterday responded to a barrage of questions from netizens, who felt Malaysia has overpaid for them.
DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang questioned why the country needed to pay RM3 billion to procure the Pfizer jab for just 20% of the population, or about 6.4 million individuals. – The Vibes, December 22, 2020
PM @MuhyiddinYassin has just announced our updated portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines. After signing deals with COVAX, Pfizer & Astra Zeneca and finalising agreements with Sinovac, CanSino & Gamaleya, we will have vaccines for almost 83% of our population at RM 2.05bn. pic.twitter.com/ZMaEoxI6Qm
— Khairy Jamaluddin ??? (@Khairykj) December 22, 2020
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