Bait Al Amanah (House of Trust) published policy paper titled 'Economic Value and Future of COVID-19 Vaccines in Malaysia' authored by Benedict Weerasena, the Research Director of Bait Al Amanah and Abel Benjamin Lim, the Head of Development Economics of Bait Al Amanah.
The main findings and recommendations of the paper are as below:
The effectiveness of vaccines provides the same results as non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing and lockdowns. This is an advantage to help build back the economy, allow business to operate and provide social interactions.
The production of vaccines involves high investment cost due to research and development (R&D), manufacturing and production, medical and non-medical costs, cold chain storage and immunization delivery costs among others.
Several parties cooperate to fund vaccine R&D and signed contracts with vaccine manufacturer prior to vaccine approval. This results in increased incentives for the production of vaccines and reduced risk of capital loss.
Technology-enabled advancements, improvement of cold chain systems and solid financing mechanisms are among the way forward for vaccine production.
Local production of vaccine, R&D and vaccine supply chain has the potential to further develop in Malaysia, especially with the development of two types of COVID-19 vaccines currently in progress i.e. inactivated vaccine and mRNA.
The full paper is attached below: