PUTRAJAYA, Jan 11 — The government via the Health Ministry and Pfizer (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd today signed an agreement for the first phase delivery of the Covid-19 Pfizer-BioNTech BNT1262b vaccines in Malaysia.

The manufacturing and supply agreement for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines was signed via a live conference by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, on behalf of the Malaysian government, and for Pfizer, its Country Manager (Malaysia and Brunei) Luksanawan Thangpaibool.

The agreement was an extension of the Binding Heads of Terms agreement signed on November 24, 2020.

The agreement with Pfizer (Malaysia) involves the procurement of 12,799,800 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to be supplied from the end of February to cover 20 per cent of the population who will each receive two doses, MOH said in a statement today.

It also added that the government has agreed to procure an additional 12.2 million doses that will bring the total number of Pfizer-BioNTech BNT1262b Covid-19 vaccines to be received throughout the year to 25 million doses, covering 39 per cent of Malaysians.

In his speech, Dr Adham said the Malaysian government appreciated the support given by Pfizer and hoped the vaccines could arrive earlier than expected.

Pfizer Head of Emerging Market Asia Anil Argilla who also witnessed the signing said Pfizer was committed to ensuring not just providing access for vaccines but working together to end the pandemic.

"This is a big step forward and ability to get control and most probably to end the pandemic in Malaysia,” he said. — Bernama