KJ: Vaccine purchase based on data

GEORGE TOWN: The government will decide on the purchase of the AstraZeneca vaccine not based on news reports, but after reviewing clinical data of the vaccine.

Khairy Jamaluddin, who is the Coordinating Minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP), said the Special Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Committee, which he chairs, would seek advice from two parties — the Vaccine Selection Technical Working Group and the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) — before deciding on the purchase of a vaccine.

Khairy, who is science, technology and innovation minister, said the government would also seek technical data from AstraZeneca before making a decision.

“The purchase and use of any vaccine need to pass through the Vaccine Selection Technical Working Group and NPRA. For now, the government has not received any information for us to decide otherwise from what was decided earlier.

“However, when we receive any new information from the news, we will ask for technical data from AstraZeneca’s side before we make any decision.

“This will enable the two parties to decide before advising the ministers prior to any decision-making. But for now, we have not received any advice from the two parties,” he said after a working visit to the Catalyst for Malaysia’s Technology Ecosystem, Universiti Sains Malaysia here yesterday.

Khairy said he had full confidence in the expertise of both parties to analyse the technical

data on the vaccine.

British regulators, on Thursday, said they had identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events after the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, however, said it had received no such reports of clotting events following use of the vaccine made by BioNTech and Pfizer.

It was reported that some countries were restricting the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Malaysia, it was reported last month, would take delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine soon.

Khairy said Malaysia had yet to reach the stage where it could produce Covid-19 vaccines.

He, however, added that they had placed the challenge on the country’s researchers to develop vaccines for human use in the next 10 years.

“The Covid-19 pandemic may not be the last pandemic to hit the world... there may be epidemics and pandemics from zoonotic viruses. All countries need to be prepared but for now, our ability is restricted, hence we need to source for vaccines from other countries.”

Khairy said the government, particularly the Health Ministry, had yet to decide on shortening the quarantine period for those entering the country after completing two doses of the Covid-19 vaccination.