M'sia will wait for results of Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials before making any decision, says Health DG

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will take a wait-and-see approach to the development of Covid-19 vaccines around the world before committing to a decision.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry will wait for the report of the clinical trials conducted on several Covid-19 vaccines to be released, so it could be analysed.

“Although there are 11 vaccines that are in the third phase of clinical trials, we have yet to read any reports on it. Hopefully, we can get the report and analyse it in terms of safety and efficacy of the vaccine.

“We hope it (the development) will be positive, but nonetheless we will be thorough. The attention is always in the detail.

“So we will wait for the phase three of the clinical trial to be concluded first before we can commit, ” he said at the ministry’s Covid-19 press briefing Tuesday (Nov 10).

Dr Noor Hisham was asked about the announcement by American pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc and German biotechnology firm BioNTech that the vaccine they are developing has an efficacy rate of 90%.

He admitted that the revelation that Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine needs to be stored in a temperature of -80°C was a challenge.

“Obviously, there are a lot of logistics issues. We would need to provide the low temperature infrastructure before we can procure the vaccine.

“This is an on-going logistics evaluation.

“That’s why it is important that we need to review the phase three clinical trial data before we make any commitment, ” he said.

Citing an example, Dr Noor Hisham said that the country had a similar dilemma with regard to the vaccine for dengue.

“Once upon a time, we were looking into a dengue vaccine. Although it was marketable, we did not go ahead because there were issues with regard to safety during the phase 3 clinical trial, ” he said.