PUTRAJAYA has committed RM2.05 billion (US$504.4 million) for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines to inoculate 82.8% of the population, said Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said this will provide free vaccination coverage to 26.5 million people.

The Science, Technology and Innovation Minister said the cost includes the agreements inked with Covax, Pfizer and AstraZeneca along with three other deals that are still being finalised.

“It is not only for Pfizer,” he explained in a press conference today.

He said Putrajaya is also in talks with China-based Sinovac and CanSinoBIO as well as Russia’s Gamaleya National Centre for the procurement of vaccines.

On the RM3 billion allocation by the government for the procurement of vaccines, Khairy said this was based on a rough estimation by the Finance Ministry.

According to the estimation, the amount will be enough to secure vaccines for 70% of the population.

However, he said the balance of what’s unspent from the RM3 billion will be reserved as buffer for future purchases.

The vaccines secured through the Covax facility, AstraZeneca and Pfizer will collectively cover 40% of the population.

The country will be able to secure the remaining 42.8% once the government finalises its deals with the remaining drug companies.

He said the agreements with Pfizer and Astra Zeneca were sealed via direct negotiations.

He added that there was no middle person involved as the agreements were established directly with the manufacturers.

As these agreements were bound by non-disclosure clauses, he was unable to reveal the cost per unit of the vaccines.

Last month, Putrajaya struck a  deal with Pfizer Inc. to procure 12.8 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

The Covid-19 vaccine was jointly developed by US pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. 

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday that the government had signed an agreement with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the procurement of 6.4 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine.

Malaysia will be obtaining another 6.4 million doses from Covax, which will be sufficient for 10% of the population.

He said the government only opted for 10% from Covax in view of the risk associated with the facility.

Reuters reported recently while quoting internal documents that the global scheme to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries faces a “very high” risk of failure.

The report said that this could potentially leave these nations with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024.

“That’s the reason why we only went with Covax for 10% of the population,” he said.

“We were happy with the objectives of Covax… global solidarity, pool purchase for poor countries… but when we analysed it we felt that particular outcome was possible,” he added.

Critics slammed Putrajaya’s vaccine procurement strategy after a Belgian minister revealed the prices of vaccines on Twitter.

However, Khairy said that governments are bound by non-disclosure agreements with the manufacturers, therefore details of the agreements are to remain confidential. – December 23, 2020.