Health director general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah
PETALING JAYA: Discussions are ongoing as to whether Malaysia will take part in the third phase of the Covid-19 vaccine trials, says the Health Ministry.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the country is still waiting for more data to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccines being tested.
“Malaysia has not been selected as a hub for the phase three clinical trials. At the moment, we have more questions than answers - until we see more data in terms of safety, side effects and other criteria, we cannot make a conclusion.
“We encourage the vaccine research to carry on, but we are waiting for the data to look into the efficacy of the vaccine, ” he said.
He said that Malaysia has had discussions with three companies involved in the trials, namely Sinovac, Sinopharm and CanSino.
“Our cases are limited now, our positive cases (on Aug 10) are only 166. The volume is not there.
Nonetheless the discussion is ongoing with the respective companies and countries, ” he said.
On Aug 6, the Xinhua news agency quoted World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Emergencies programme executive director Michael Ryan as saying that several Covid-19 vaccine candidates have entered phase three trials.
