KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 — The federal government has spent a total of RM4.36 billion to procure 87.9 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of August 25.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, in a written parliamentary reply yesterday, said these involved Covid-19 vaccines procured via the United-Nations backed COVAX Facility and direct negotiations with several vaccine manufacturers, such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
The government has procured five types of Covid-19 vaccines, including Sinovac, CanSino and Gamaleya’s Sputnik V, other than Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford. Malaysia also receives AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX Facility. The national vaccination programme, however, only uses Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, and CanSino.
Khairy said this in response to Jelutong MP RSN Rayer’s request for the minister to state the total amount spent by the Perikatan Nasional government to purchase Covid-19 vaccines to date. The DAP lawmaker also asked for the amount of allocation that has been used for the purchase of each type of vaccine.
On exact procurement costs, Khairy said the central government is subjected to non-disclosure terms as stipulated in its agreement with Covid-19 vaccine providers.
“However, I would like to emphasise that all the vaccines procured have gone through an open and stringent procurement process, which included a series of price negotiations between the relevant federal agencies and the companies involved.
“It is our utmost priority to ensure that the health and wellbeing of all Malaysians are not affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Based on Khairy’s speech to the Dewan Rakyat on July 28, the federal government’s orders of 87.9 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines comprised 44.8 million doses of Pfizer, 20.4 million Sinovac, 6.4 million AstraZeneca, 6.4 million from the COVAX Facility, 3.5 million CanSino, and 6.4 million Sputnik V.
