All efforts taken to ensure vaccines safe, say Pfizer and BioNTech

PUTRAJAYA: Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and BioNTech said all efforts will be taken to ensure that the Covid-19 vaccine provided for Malaysians will be safe and fully tested.

“We are deeply honoured to work with the Malaysian government and to marshal our scientific and manufacturing resources toward our shared goal of bringing a potential Covid-19 vaccine to Malaysians as quickly as possible, ” said Luksanawan Thangpaibool, Pfizer country manager.

BioNTech chief business and chief commercial officer Sean Marett said the company “understands that the Covid-19 vaccine is a matter of urgency as it is a global health crisis”.

“Our goal remains to create a global supply of a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine for many people around the world, as quickly as we can, ” he said.

In a media statement released yesterday, Pfizer and BioNTech stated that they were committed to supply 12.8 million doses of the BNT162 mRNA-based Vaccine Candidate over the course of 2021.

It said that all clinical studies and efforts to get regulatory approval had begun early this month and the two companies were expected to manufacture up to 1.3 billion doses globally by the end of next year.

“Assuming positive data and availability of the necessary manufacturing and safety data, and based on current projections, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to produce globally up to 50 million doses of vaccines in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.

By 2021, to meet those anticipated quantities and milestones, the companies have produced sufficient supply for their phase 2 and 3 clinical trials and have begun producing and stocking their pandemic supply.

“The BNT162b2 candidate vaccine is not currently approved for distribution anywhere in the world, ” the statement said.

“Both partners are committed to developing these novel vaccines with pre clinical and clinical data at the forefront of all their decision making.”

According to Pfizer and BioNTech, the phase 3 clinical trial of BNT162b2 began on July 27 and to date, has enrolled 43,661 participants.