KUALA LUMPUR: Sinovac's CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine, received by Malaysia today, must first go through a manufacturing process by the pharmaceutical company Pharmaniaga, to be evaluated and approved by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).
Coordinating Minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin, said the manufacturing process is one of the criteria that would be evaluated by the NPRA, before giving recommendations to the Drug Control Authority (PBKD) for approval.
"Many ask why we received a vaccine that has yet to be approved by the regulatory agency today. This is because the approval process from the regulatory agency must look at how this vaccine is bottled before it can be approved.
He said this, among others, aims to provide registration application data for carrying out a validation process, as well as looking at stability data from the factory.
Khairy, who is also the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, said this at a press conference after witnessing the arrival of the 200 litres of CoronaVac vaccine developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), from Beijing, China, this morning. - BERNAMA