KUALA LUMPUR: Two different Covid-19 vaccine brands have been mixed and matched in extremely rare occasions, such as when the vaccine recipient developed an allergic reaction or anaphylactic shock to the first dose.
Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme (NIP) coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said there had been cases where the mix-and-match approach, called a heterologous prime-boost, were used in administering Covid-19 vaccines.
"For instance, we have given Sinovac as the second dose to those who developed allergic reactions or had an anaphylactic shock after receiving Pfizer as the first dose," said the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation at a press conference today.
Khairy said the technical working group under the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee (JKJAV) had recommended that Malaysia continue with "homologous prime-boost" where the same vaccine is used multiple times to boost immunity.
"At the moment, there is a lack of both clinical and real world data (on heterologous prime-boost), hence the committee has advised us to stick with homologous prime-boost."
However, he said the government will continue to study the data for heterologous prime-boost, considering many other countries have started to do it.
"We are conducting our own study on heterologous vaccination to determine its safety and efficacy."
Earlier, Khairy was reviewing the process of administering Covid-19 vaccines to pregnant mothers at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) vaccination centre (PPV), here.