KHAIRY Jamaluddin said the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) is currently evaluating applications for registration of vaccines produced by several drug makers.

“Some of these vaccines, if they are later approved by the NPRA, the private sector (can) purchase and go ahead with that,” the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) said in a press conference this afternoon.

He said a local party has also shown interest in registering the Moderna vaccine.

However, he said that Putrajaya will leave that vaccine to the private market as Moderna is quite of an expensive vaccine.

As for Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute, which is part of the Russian Health Ministry, Khairy said the approval process for the vaccine is still ongoing.

“On Sputnik V, it is still back and forth. I think NPRA is not entirely satisfied with the data points provided by DuoPharma, which is the local product registration holder,” he said.

Sputnik V was among the five vaccine candidates initially identified by Putrajaya for use in the national vaccination drive.

Currently, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Sinovac’s Coronavac vaccines are being used in the NIP.

The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, on the other hand, is being administered via an opt-in programme for those who sign up. – May 19, 2021.