TOKYO -- Wealthy countries should not hoard COVID-19 vaccines and their patents, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin urged on Thursday, calling for equitable access to end the pandemic and total reform of the pharmaceutical system for the future.

In a video address to Nikkei's Future of Asia conference, Muhyiddin said artificial hurdles are hindering efforts to suppress COVID-19 infections quickly and win the race against mutating variants that could render current shots "obsolete." The event will be held in Tokyo and online through Friday.

"The wealthiest 27 countries have 35.5% of the vaccines, although they only cover 10.5% of the world's population," Muhyiddin said. "These countries have more than enough vaccine doses to immunize people beyond their own populations."

Meanwhile, he continued, "there have been 1.23 billion doses administered across 174 countries so far, with 252 million doses or 20% of the global supply taken up by the U.S. alone."

Muhyiddin's participation in the annual Nikkei conference marks his first engagement with a foreign media organization since he took office in March 2020. He joins a who's who list of top leaders due to deliver their perspectives on the region's challenges and post-COVID era, including Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will speak at the conclusion of Thursday's session.

Muhyiddin noted that Asian countries have been more generous in sharing their vaccines. China and India, he said, have exported around 200 million and 66 million vaccine doses, respectively -- approximately 48% and 34% of their total production. He said the ratios for the U.S. and U.K. are far lower, at 1.1% and 4%.

Muhyiddin said Asia should take lead in lifting patent protections to produce cheaper generic versions of life-saving medicines for critical diseases, from COVID-19 to HIV/AIDS.

The prime minister did welcome U.S. President Joe Biden's support for a temporary waiver of intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines. Muhyiddin said this should be a precursor for a total transformation of the global pharmaceutical patent system.

"Pausing the gears is not enough. Our obligation is to dismantle it entirely," he said. For Asia to effectively prevent and fight pandemics, he added, it needs to shift from a "purely nationalistic approach" to health services to investing in health as a global public good.

Muhyiddin also warned of a "global leadership vacuum" and a "trust deficit between the world's so-called superpowers" over trade, technology and other geopolitical concerns. Despite globalization changing the way infectious diseases spread, he stressed the world lacks an effective system of global governance to respond to these threats swiftly and on a large scale, transcending the forces of nationalism and isolationism.

"Hence the United Nations, not for lack of effort, has struggled" to reach a consensus on international cooperation against the pandemic and to "call for a truce in conflicts around the world."

"We have yet to see the kind of urgency of meetings at the U.N. Security Council nor the global heads of state coming together to organize, for example, global supply chains in managing the pandemic."

Asia, according to Muhyiddin, should seize this ongoing crisis as an opportunity to help forge a more equal world with better global governance. "There can be no return to the status quo, there can be no recovery without an Asia recovery," he said.

Malaysia is confronting a wave of COVID-19 infections, with more than 485,000 cases reported as of Wednesday, including 47,340 active cases that are straining the country's health system. The death toll has reached 2,040.

While the economy contracted 5.6% in 2020 and declined 0.5% in the first quarter of this year, Muhyiddin's government is juggling a fiscal deficit estimated to hit 6% of gross domestic product this year. Since March 2020, his government has committed over 340 billion ringgit ($82 billion) worth of stimulus packages to mitigate the pandemic's impact.

In his address, Muhyiddin also highlighted growing concerns about inequality, noting that in many cases "poverty and exclusion comes from working in an unfair system." New Asian institutions, he said, should be created to help level the playing field.

Striking an optimistic note, he said, "Our greatest centuries can be ahead of us, not behind."