Unlike US, KJ says no political pressure to push Covid-19 vaccines in Malaysia

 

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has assured that there will be no political pressure for the emergency use of Covid-19 vaccines in Malaysia, unlike in the US.

He said the vaccines would be independently evaluated for efficacy and safety by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) under the Health Ministry before being approved for public use.

“In Malaysia, there will be no political pressure, and we will not use the emergency use pathway.

“The clinical data of the vaccines we procure will be independently evaluated by the NPRA before it can be approved and registered for use,” Khairy said in a Twitter posting today.

He was referring to news that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had been under political pressure from outgoing US President Donald Trump’s administration to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use immediately.

Reports have also claimed that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn’s job could be on the line if the vaccine was not approved.

The US FDA has since authorised the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, with the first inoculations expected within days.

Hahn has denied that Meadows told him to submit his resignation if the vaccine does not receive an emergency-use authorisation soon.

Putrajaya had previously signed two agreements to secure enough supply of Covid-19 vaccine for 30 percent of the population.

The first agreement was with the global Covax Facility, signed on Nov 23, which guarantees a vaccine supply for 10 percent of the population.

The second deal was with Pfizer, signed on Nov 24, to provide vaccine supply for 20 percent of the population.

Khairy had previously stressed that the government would not compromise on the safety and efficacy of the vaccines procured and the final decision on the usage of a vaccine will only be made after it is registered and approved by the NPRA under the Health Ministry.

He also said the government is currently in talks with other Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing companies in order to achieve their target of vaccinating 70 percent of the Malaysian population in the first quarter of 2021.

The target of 70 percent of the population to be vaccinated is in order to reach the herd immunity threshold under the National Immunisation Plan. - Mkini