Malaysia says its delivery of Pfizer vaccines on track

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia said on Tuesday it expects its COVID-19 vaccination plan to proceed as scheduled after the government received assurances from the EU and Belgian ambassadors about the delivery of Pfizer's vaccine.

The Pfizer vaccine is produced in Belgium and the European Commission said on Friday it had agreed a plan to control exports of vaccines from the European Union, including to Britain, arguing it needed to do so to ensure its own supplies.

Malaysia's science minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, said Belgian ambassador Pascal Gregoire gave his assurance that the Southeast Asian nation's advanced purchase agreement with Pfizer will be fulfilled, upon Pfizer applying for export authorisation.

"With the assurances of both the EU and Belgian Ambassadors, the COVID-19 immunisation plan is expected to proceed according to plan," Khairy said in a statement.

Malaysia announced on Monday that it expected to receive the first batch of Pfizer's vaccine, jointly developed by the US drugmaker and German partner BioNTech, on Feb. 26.

In November, Malaysia announced it had agreed to buy 12.8 million doses of the vaccine, with the first one million doses scheduled for the first quarter of this year. Deliveries of 1.7 million, 5.8 million and 4.3 million doses will follow in subsequent quarters.

Malaysia also signed a second deal with Pfizer to secure an additional 12.2 million doses of the vaccine, besides agreements to buy 18.4 million doses of other vaccines produced by Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute and China's Sinovac.