Malaysia signs 5-year vaccine R&D and supply deal with China

 

COVID-19 | Malaysia and China have signed a five-year agreement to collaborate on vaccine development, which would also give Malaysia priority access to Covid-19 vaccines developed by China.

The agreement was signed by Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and his Chinese counterpart Wang Zhigang at a virtual ceremony today, according to a joint statement by Wisma Putra and Malaysia’s science ministry.

“During a bilateral virtual engagement earlier, both Khairy and Wang, had agreed to increase collaboration in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic through science diplomacy.

“The agreement provides for Malaysia to be given priority access to Covid-19 vaccines developed by China, knowledge sharing and expertise as well as facilitate scientific and technological capabilities to advance vaccine development in both countries," the statement read. 

“Both countries will also support the participation of their public and private sectors including universities, institutions, societies and organisations in joint collaborative projects.

“Both governments have further agreed that both countries will also support and encourage their enterprises to establish all-round cooperation in vaccine research and development, and supply,” it added.

The statement said the agreement will remain in force for an initial period of five years, and then automatically extended one year at a time, upon mutual agreement by Malaysia and China.

Meanwhile on Twitter, Khairy said he also discussed with Wang on having a mutually accepted “blockchain-enabled digital health passport”. 

This would be used to facilitate a travel corridor for vaccinated citizens from both countries, he added.

Khairy had previously said Malaysia was in talks with 10 Covid-19 vaccine producers in hopes of getting enough vaccines to immunise at least 70 percent of the population against Covid-19, which is the level experts say is needed to achieve herd immunity.

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba had said Malaysia hopes to obtain Covid-19 vaccines by the first quarter of next year.

Previously, a small study conducted on archived serum samples collected at the University of Malaya Medical Centre suggested that only about 0.4 percent of the population of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor have been infected with Covid-19 up to June 6.

“With little herd immunity, Malaysia remains highly susceptible to Covid-19 as we emerge from lockdown,” said the authors of the study published in the Journal of Medical Virology on Aug 13.

The authors of the study also said this is several times higher than the prevalence rate of confirmed cases for the study period, which was 0.05 percent.

However, this is in line with the findings of similar studies conducted around the world. They also acknowledge a larger study is needed to confirm their findings.

For the record, there are at least four vaccine candidates developed in China currently in late-stage clinical trials – CanSino Biological Inc’s Ad5-nCoV, Sinopharm’s BBIBP-CorV and WIBP, and Sinovac’s CoronaVac.

Earlier today, it was reported that a mid-stage trial showed that CoronaVac elicited a quick immune response, though the level of antibodies produced was lower than people who had recovered from the disease.

The trial was not designed to assess efficacy, but researchers said it could still provide sufficient protection against the disease.

Previously, US drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna, as well as Russia, had claimed their vaccine candidates conferred more than 90 percent protection against Covid-19 based on interim results from late-stage trials. - Mkini