KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has been chosen to conduct third-phase clinical trials for pharmaceutical giant Sinovac Biotech Ltd’s Covid-19 vaccine on children under the age of 12.
Deputy Health Minister II Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang told the Dewan Rakyat today that the trials are expected to begin at the end of this month.
He said that they will be carried out at 10 research locations involving eight facilities under his ministry, Universiti Malaya, and Universiti Teknologi Mara.
The Kanowit MP added that apart from the vaccine by the Chinese company, the other Covid-19 vaccine that is being studied in the third phase for children is one by US-based Novavax.
“Several discussion sessions had been held by the Health Ministry with a few vaccine manufacturers to get their latest data on vaccines for those below 12,” Aaron said.
“However, we have yet to receive the data that is needed from the companies that are producing the Covid-19 vaccines,” the GPS lawmaker said when replying to a question raised by Wong Kah Who (Ipoh Timur-PH) in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Wong had asked if the government has started looking into vaccine efficacy on children under 12 and if any dates have been obtained from vaccine manufacturers on when the vaccines can be administered on the kids.
Aaron also acknowledged that Pfizer-BioNTech had published on September 20 its third-phase clinical vaccine trial findings for children between 5 and 12 years old.
“The vaccine was found to be safe and showed a strong neutralising antibody reaction,” he said.
“On October 15, Pfizer-BioNTech had submitted its findings to the United States Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency,” he added.
In addition, Aaron said China has approved two vaccines produced by Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm for emergency use on children between the ages of 3 and 17.
“Phases 1 and 2 of clinical trials showed that the vaccines are safe and produced an increased immunity reaction among children and teenagers,” he said. – The Vibes, October 26, 2021
