CanSino's COVID-19 vaccine approved as booster shot

KUALA LUMPUR: CanSino's single-dose Convidecia vaccine has obtained conditional approval as a booster shot from Malaysia's Drug Control Authority (DCA), which is under the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).

Solution Group Bhd, via subsidiary Solution Biologics Sdn Bhd, said the DCA has consented to Convidecia being used as a booster. Convidecia is an adenovirus type-5 vector-based vaccine.

The approval "allows" the CanSino vaccine to be used on those aged 18 and above, three to six months after their first dose of the CanSino vaccine, a press statement from the group said.

Deputy group managing director Datuk Mohd Nazlee Kamal said studies showed that Convidecia's single-dose vaccine is effective as a booster against the spread of COVID-19 variants. It demonstrated an increase of at least eight times higher neutralising antibody levels, six months after receiving the first dose.

"With this approval, we hope that it will help to increase the number of booster doses administered within the nation to stem the spread," he said.

The group is also working towards getting NPRA approval for Convidecia to be used as a booster for other primary vaccine recipients such as CoronoVac, which is also known as Sinovac.

Solution Biologics delivered 3.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the Ministry of Health in December 2021. Local production from its fill-and-finish facility is expected to start soon.

-- BERNAMA