Making a strategic choice for vaccine security

Photo: AZHAR MAHFOF/The Star

THE recent developments in regional vaccine development and production capacity (“Key to be ready for major diseases”, The Star, May 18; online at bit.ly/star_biotech) should be welcomed by all, and not be seen as a threat to Malaysia’s biotechnology industry.

Even though Malaysia has set its sights on establishing a sustainable local vaccine production capacity at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, marked progress in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand must be taken into consideration for Malaysia to decide strategically moving forward with improving pandemic preparedness in light of fiscal woes and economic concerns.

For the national context, is vaccine security a purely inventory problem or is it a technical capacity challenge?

There is no magic machine that produces a vaccine automatically with just a push of a button. The primary requisite is possessing detailed information of the biological target, which means the ability to quickly and accurately detect, isolate and characterise the causative pathogen is paramount before any form of manufactured defence can be developed, tested and distributed for use.

For this to happen, active surveillance of potential pandemic threats must be in place – similar to the idea of a national radar defence net to protect sovereign air space. Furthermore, there is no ideal universal vaccine; each therapy must be directed at the most dominant local strain for it to be effective for the given population. This is further complicated by the big technical challenge of arriving at a suitable vaccine platform, where the choice between using peptides or the more advanced mRNA changes the overall cost for development from bench to bedside.

Even though we may have laboratories that can handle both pathogen detection and vaccine production, these are not full-fledged factories. For the time being, procurement from the fastest and most reliable source is likely the best strategy for vaccine security.

Malaysia could be involved in enhancing vaccine production capacity at the regional level with a range of financial instruments such as subsidised production or capacity, and concessional loan and volume guarantee through government-to-government arrangements – much like established economies optimising the advantage of cheaper production sites for manufacturing while maintaining upstream design facilities locally.

At the same time, more investments can be funnelled properly into enhancing surveillance and genomic deep characterisation capabilities in already existing genetic technology infrastructure.

This leverages on the proven strengths of local institutions and reduces dilution of the already limited funding available for national scientific bodies of excellence. For the times when being prudent is the greatest virtue, aiming for low hanging fruit to first secure peace of mind should be prioritised before moving on to more lofty goals.

PROF DATUK DR HANAFIAH HARUNRASHID

Pro vice chancellor (Kuala Lumpur campus)

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia