Malaysia needs to review clinical trial before vaccine procurement - Health DG

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia needs to review the phase three clinical trial data before making any commitment on COVID-19 vaccine procurement, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said Malaysia has yet to read the report of the clinical trial in terms of safety and efficiency.

"We (Malaysia's Health Ministry) are thorough in looking into details. Presently, there are 11 COVID-19 vaccines in clinical trial phase," he told a COVID-19 media conference at the Health Ministry (MOH) here today.

Dr Noor Hisham said this when asked if Malaysia would still wait after Pfizer Inc reportedly said its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with its German partner BioNTech SE, was more than 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 infection.

The claim marked the first successful results of a large-scale clinical trial.

Dr Noor Hisham also expressed his concern on the possibility of mutation in virus causing former COVID-19 patients to be infected again, as this could have an impact on the vaccines under development.

"MOH is also worried about reports on mutation happening, for example at mink-rearing farms in Denmark. There were cases of mutation linked to animals and the effects we do not know yet," he added.

He said MOH would continue to use public health procedures which have proven successful in curbing the spread of infectious diseases like the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and COVID-19 which have no vaccines until today.

-- BERNAMA