KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia may not currently be capable of creating its own Covid-19 vaccines, but Putrajaya has invested money in two public universities to develop such a capacity, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
In a statement today, Khairy said his ministry has provided grants to two research groups at Universiti Malaya and Universiti Putra Malaysia to conduct research and development to boost local vaccine expertise.
“We have to admit that Malaysia does not have the complete facilities to make vaccines.
“Therefore, in negotiations to buy Covid-19 vaccines, the government has inserted value-added elements to allow Malaysia to build its capacity to develop vaccines in the country in the future.”
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had yesterday raised concerns over the government’s Covid-19 immunisation programme, including, among others, issues concerning local vaccine manufacturing, vaccine registration difficulties and procurement transparency.
The PKR president said some of the measures outlined in the policy could have been executed better.
Responding to the criticism, Khairy said the 1.4 million people who failed to complete their registration for Covid-19 jabs due to a problem in the MySejahtera app will receive a text message notifying them on the matter.
As for registration problems, the minister said he had mentioned the issue in a press conference yesterday, whereby users of the contact-tracing app will be asked to complete the vaccination assessments to facilitate appointments to receive the inoculation.
“On repeated registrations, as I have mentioned, MySejahtera has records of the first registration for vaccination, therefore, users do not need to make repeated registrations.
“This is evident in the new user interface that was released last Saturday and shows the date on which the users registered for the first time.”
The government, Khairy added, is also working with various ministries, such as the Health Ministry and the religious affairs unit under the Prime Minister’s Department, as well as the Islamic Development Department (Jakim).
Programmes have also been conducted through mass and social media, he said, adding that there are ongoing outreach efforts to educate the public on the importance of vaccines.
On transparency over the acquisition of vaccines, Khairy said the government had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the providers, adding that the Health Ministry had tabled the matter to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), and its members were satisfied with the explanation.
He went on to debunk Anwar’s assumption that the government isn’t giving due attention to the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine.
“This is not true as the Sputnik V is in the (country’s) portfolio of acquisition of Covid-19 vaccines and is currently under the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) for approval and registration.” – The Vibes, March 16, 2021
