Covid-19 vaccine in Kuwait by end of this year, says Health Ministry

KUNA

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

The Ministry of Health announced, Tuesday, the arrival of Covid-19 "BNT162" vaccine by the end of this year, and usage will be subject to approval of local regulatory authorities.

In a statement, Assistant Undersecretary for Medicines and Medical Supplies, Dr. Abdullah Al-Bader, said the agreement reached with Pfizer and BioNTech, which developed the vaccine, to supply the vaccine to Kuwait.

Based on the ministry?’s request, the vaccine will arrive by the end of 2020 and during the year 2021 after completing clinical tests and necessary approvals from local regulatory authorities, he said, pointing out that the financial details of this agreement have not been disclosed.

The Ministry has taken all measures to receive the Covid-19 vaccine and store it in the ministry's facilities at a temperature of -70 degrees Celsius, he added.

This agreement falls under the global commitment of Pfizer and BioNTech to confront the global Covid-19 crisis, Al-Bader said.

For her part, Pfizer's Chief Business Officer in the Gulf region, Lindsey Dietschi, expressed pleasure to cooperate with the Kuwaiti government in order to achieve the common goal of providing the potential Covid-19 vaccine to the Kuwaiti people as soon as possible.

She expressed hope the vaccine save people's lives as she stressed this depends on the success of clinical tests.

For his part, Chief Business and Commercial Affairs Officer at BioNTech Shaun Marett thanked the Kuwaiti government for its support and confidence in their ability to develop a vaccine believed to be able to confront this global epidemic threat.

The goal is to provide global supplies of a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19 to many people around the world as soon as possible, he said.

Both Pfizer and BioNTech began obtaining regulatory approvals in November 2020 and are expected to manufacture up to 3.1 billion doses globally by the end of 2021.

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