‘SAFETY IS PARAMOUNT’
MALAYSIA will review the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine following European and British regulators' findings of its possible links to cases of blood clots. Some countries have either suspended the vaccine or halted its use for those under 60.
MALAYSIA will review the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine following the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) findings that it has the potential to cause rare side effects, such as “unusual blood clots”.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, in a Twitter post yesterday, said the government had taken note of the agency’s announcement.
“@JKJAVMY (The Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee) will deliberate the matter and decide if we should go ahead using AZ (AstraZeneca) in our portfolio of vaccines,” he tweeted.
“Safety is paramount.” On Tuesday, Marco Cavaleri, EMA’s head of vaccines, told Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper that in his opinion, “We can say it now, it is clear there is a link with the vaccine… But we still do not know what causes this reaction”.
The announcement came on the heels of rare but serious blood clotting events in recipients in recent weeks, with more than a dozen European countries briefly suspending its use last month pending an EMA investigation.
The EMA is also looking into 14 deaths among recipients of the jab that had been reported by March 22 and were related to unusual blood clots in the brain, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), accompanied by a low platelet count.
A high proportion of the reported cases involved young and middle-aged women.
The regulator, however, consistently said the benefits outweighed the risks as it investigated 44 reports of CVST out of 9.2 million people in the European Economic Area, who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Khairy, who is also coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, had previously said the government had several back-up plans in the event the vaccine was found to be unsuitable for use.
Malaysia was scheduled to take delivery of about 6.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in May, for the use of 3.2 million people.
Khairy, in his keynote speech at the launch of the AstraZeneca and Sunway First Health Innovation Hub (HIH) yesterday, said Malaysia was committed to strengthening its capability and capacity to develop its own human vaccines to avoid another situation of vaccine inequity in the future.
He said given that many developed countries have dominated much of the global vaccine supplies, it was time Malaysia joined the international community in enhancing its healthcare ecosystem, especially in the production of new vaccines.
He said many parts of the world, especially low- and middle-income countries, were struggling to get access to vaccine supply and lacked the capability to manufacture their own home
grown vaccines.
“Developed countries have cornered much of the supplies and these countries now have to rely on facilities like Covax to get their vaccines.
“This inequity is injustice. Malaysia preempted this and started negotiating early, including with AstraZeneca, to secure enough supply to immunise about 80 per cent of the population by the end of this year.
“We also decided to join Covax to show global solidarity and to push for vaccine equity for all. Nobody is safe until everyone is safe,” he said.
The HIH, he said, would strategically support the development of a more robust primary care ecosystem in the country, as well as strongly position Malaysia on the innovation front in the healthcare space.
He also expressed confidence that the collaboration between AstraZeneca and Sunway would provide a strategic platform to facilitate research and development (R&D), and digital and commercial collaboration with local stakeholders and start-ups.
“We know this will not be the last pandemic, hence we decided to build up our capabilities, especially in the healthcare sector, which includes the development of a human vaccine from R&D to manufacturing.”
He called on more private and public partnerships of this nature, where researchers could work with the industries to bring their products to the market.
He said the HIH would provide the opportunity for the commercialisation of new healthcare solutions,
enabling start-ups to bring their cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions to life.
The event saw AstraZeneca formalise a partnership with Sunway University via its innovation arm, Sunway Innovation Labs, to establish the HIH.
The hub is part of the AstraZeneca A. Catalyst Network, an interconnected global network of more than 20 AstraZeneca health innovation hubs.
AstraZeneca Malaysia country president Dr Sanjeev Panchal earlier said the company had a vital role to play in supporting Malaysia’s battle against noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by strengthening its primary care ecosystem with solutions beyond medicine.
“With the establishment of the HIH in Malaysia, AstraZeneca aims to create partnerships with local healthcare innovators and provide them with the platform and tools needed to build sustainable ecosystems and further drive digital health innovation.
“With a robust ecosystem in place, we can address the prevalence of NCDs, better support the patient experience and enable digital health innovation.”
“By allowing digital technology into healthcare, we are able to solve healthcare problems ‘beyond the pill’ by providing digital solutions that are affordable, universal, high-quality and patientcentric.
“This creates unique experiences for patients which ultimately delivers more powerful healthcare over the longer term,” he said.