THE Covid-19 vaccine supply row in the European Union will not affect the drug’s rollout in Malaysia, said an AstraZeneca spokesman.

“AstraZeneca is fully committed to the successful vaccine rollout in Malaysia as soon as possible. We have been working with the government for doses of our vaccine through our global supply network.

“The situation in Europe has no impact on Malaysia,” the spokesman told The Malaysian Insight amid a row between the company and the EU over delayed deliveries of the vaccine to member states.

The global pharmaceuticals giant told the EU on January 22 that it could not meet the agreed supply targets up to the end of March.

News emerged later that the company is facing wider supply issues.

However, on January 31, the company committed to supply nine million doses of vaccine to the EU by March.

On January 25, director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a special Zoom dialogue session with the media that AstraZeneca has yet to submit its dossier to the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).

However, the company did not provide a direct answer to the matter except to say it was committed to supporting the NPRA with the ongoing review of the data.

“We are working closely with NPRA to support the exchange of information for its independent decision-making.

“As we meticulously progress along the regulatory pathway, we will continue to work with agility to ensure broad and equitable access to the vaccine for all Malaysians during this pandemic,” it added.

Malaysia bought 12.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine, whereby 6.4 million doses will be purchased via the Covax facility and the remainder will be through direct negotiations with the company.

Noor Hisham said the country is expected to receive the first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on February 26.

Putrajaya has committed RM2.05 billion for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, which includes deals with Covax, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Russia’s Gamaleya National Centre. – February 3, 2021.