The year is almost up, and countries are already gearing up to get their hands on Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. And with a new strain cropping up in Britain, the need for access to the vaccine has never been higher.
However, despite purchasing 12.8 million doses of the vaccine, Malaysia is choosing to be cautious by delaying the usage of the vaccine until it has verified Pfizer trial data.
On December 21, Malaysia’s health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah announced that it would take up to 90 to 120 days for the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) in Malaysia to evaluate the vaccine.
Verifying the clinical trial is a smart move, but the amount that’s being allocated to do it seems absurdly slow.