GI HEALTHCARE TO SPONSOR 10,000 COVID-19 VACCINES TO FRONTLINERS

At the video conference on Covid-19 vaccine cooperation, (from left) Lim, Hamzah, Leong and Rosli.

CHINA National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) Co Ltd through its local partner GI Healthcare Resources Sdn Bhd held a video conference on Nov 16 with Malaysian government officials on Covid-19 vaccine cooperation.

In the meeting with Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba and their officers, GI Healthcare Resources agreed to sponsor 10,000 Covid-19 vaccines for Malaysian frontliners, especially medical and police personnel.

The vaccine is developed by China’s state-owned enterprise Sinopharm which is currently carrying out third phase clinical trials in 10 countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and Morocco – involving more than 55,000 test subjects with none reporting severe adverse effects.

Sinopharm reported that two vaccines have been approved for emergency use in China, the UAE and Bahrain, involing more than one million frontliners. More than 60,000 personnel who have been vaccinated have gone to work in more than 180 countries overseas without a single reported case of Covid-19 infection.

Sinopharm’s vaccine effectiveness has been found to be close to 100% among 99 employees in Huawei’s offce in Mexico, where 81 workers were vaccinated while 18 were not. After the outbreak, none of the 81 vaccinated employees were infected, whereas 10 of the 18 employees who were not vaccinated were later diagnosed to be Covid-19 positive.

Sinopharm says its vaccines lead in safety, effectiveness and accessibility. It says its vaccines can be stored and transported in a temperature ranging between 2ºC and 8ºC, which is far more practical and convenient compared to vaccines by other manufacturers which can be anticipated to face storage and other logistical issues.

The Home Ministry and the Health Ministry have expressed support for the GI Healthcare Resources proposal to sponsor 10,000 vaccines for emergency use in Malaysia by the frontliners. This will enhance the assessment process for registration of the vaccine in Malaysia.

At the video briefing with government officials, GI Healthcare Resources was represented by Tan Sri Lim Yew Loong, Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum, Sim Guan Yu and Rosli Dahlan while Sinopharm was represented by its chairman Liu Jingzhen and his team.

Article courtesy of GI Healthcare Resources