Malaysia Buys 18.4 Million CoronaVac + Sputnik V Doses!

Malaysia just purchased 18.4 million doses of the CoronaVac and Sputnik V vaccines against COVID-19!

Find out what this means for the COVID-19 vaccination programme in Malaysia!

 

Malaysia Vaccine Plan Changes With CoronaVac and Sputnik V Orders

Originally, the Ministry of Health planned to vaccinate 82.8% of the population using six COVID-19 vaccines :

  • 20% will receive the BNT162b2 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech
  • 10% will receive the AZD1222 vaccine from AstraZeneca-Oxford
  • 10% will receive vaccines secured through the COVAX facility
  • 22% will receive the CoronaVac vaccine from Sinovac BioTech.
  • 10.8% will receive the Convidecia vaccine from CanSino Biologics.
  • 10% will receive the Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine from Gamaleya Research Institute.

But with the doubled purchase of the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine, Malaysia will purchase fewer vaccines from Sinovac, CanSino or Gamaleya.

The first casualty appears to be Sinovac BioTech, with Malaysia trimming their planned order from 14 million doses to 12 million doses.

 

Malaysia Buys 18.4 Million CoronaVac + Sputnik V Doses!

On 26 January 2021, the Malaysia Ministry of Health (KKM) signed terms sheets for the purchase of the CoronaVac and Sputnik V vaccines.

Unlike the direct purchase deal with Pfizer, KKM will be obtaining those vaccines through two intermediary companies :

  • Pharmaniaga Lifescience Sdn. Bhd. for the CoronaVac vaccine from Sinovac Biotech
  • Duopharma (M) Sdn. Bhd. for the Sputnik V vaccine from Gamaleya Research Institute

Pharmaniaga is expected to supply 12 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine in stages, beginning in April 2021. This should cover up to 6 million people, approximately 18.75% of the adult population.

Duopharma is expected to supply 6.4 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine in stages, beginning in March 2021. This should cover up to 3.2 million people, approximately 10% of the adult population.

With 25 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine purchased, Malaysia will have enough to vaccinate about 21.7 million people, or ⅔ of the adult population.

 

CoronaVac COVID-19 Vaccine : A Quick Primer

Developed by Sinovac, CoronaVac is an inactivated virus vaccine – an older method of creating vaccines.

The SARS-CoV-2 viruses are cultured (grown) in Vero cells, and inactivated (killed) before being administered as a vaccine.

The CoronaVac vaccine only needs to be refrigerated at 2–8 °C (36–46 °F), which makes it easy to distribute.

This is a 2-dose vaccine, which the second dose delivered 14 days after the first.

 

Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine : A Quick Primer

Sputnik V (also known as Gam-COVID-Vac) was developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Russia.

It is a two-dose vaccine that uses two human adenoviruses (Ad26 and Ad5) to deliver the gene that encodes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

The first dose uses the Ad26 adenovirus, followed 21 days later by the second dose which uses the Ad5 adenovirus to boost the immune response.

This vaccine must be kept frozen at −18 °C (0 °F), with a special freeze-dried formulation (Gam-COVID-Vac-Lyo) for storage at 2–8 °C (36–46 °F).

 

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