Malaysian Covid-19 vaccine to be fully developed by local experts, Dewan Rakyat told

KUALA LUMPUR: The ongoing development of a Malaysian Covid-19 vaccine at the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) will be fully conducted by local experts and researchers, says Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang.

The Deputy Health Minister told the Dewan Rakyat that the research into Covid-19 vaccines at the IMR covers two types of vaccine technology, namely inactivated virus and mRNA.

"Vaccines at the IMR will be developed 100% by local experts who consist of researchers from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the Veterinary Research Institute (VRI)," he told Datuk Mohd Salim Sharif (BN-Jempol) during Question Time on Thursday (Oct 7).

Aaron Ago also noted that the inactivated virus vaccine is already at the inactivation stage while the mRNA vaccine is undergoing in vitro transcription.

"Production of the Covid-19 vaccine will take some time to achieve the required safety and effectiveness through the third phase of clinical studies, as well as approval from the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA), before it can be used by the public," he said.

He added that Covid-19 vaccine research was a new field and will only be accessible by Malaysia after the pre-clinical study on animal and clinical human studies shows it is safe and effective.

The vaccine is expected to be ready by 2024.