SCIENCE, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the Sinovac vaccine met World Health Organisation (WHO) standards for efficacy.

“The level of effectiveness of this Sinovac vaccine is between 50.4% to 91.25%.

“In fact, the vaccine injected to the president of Indonesia is the Sinovac vaccine. So, it has already been used,” he said today after receiving the vaccine from China this morning.

The coordinating minister of the National Covid-19 Immunisation programme said that the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) is in the process of evaluating the Sinovac clinical data.

“Our NPRA is very strict and they will not pass any unsafe and ineffective vaccine. So, I hope there is no doubt from any party against Sinovac and other vaccines approved.”

The Sinovac vaccine has passed the third stage of clinical trials in several countries, including Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia.

“Experiments conducted in Turkey show 90% efficacy and in Brazil, it is above 50%.

“The profile of volunteers in Brazil’s clinical trial is a little different, it was those on the frontline, and the way that the efficacy numbers were reported were a little bit more complex.

“That is why the clinical results from Brazil were slightly over 50%,”” said Khairy.

Currently, he said, the government has no secured timeline as to when the Sinovac vaccine will be ready for injections in Malaysia.

“When will the Sinovac vaccine be approved by the Health Ministry, NPRA and DCA (Drug Control Authority)? My clear answer today is I do not know and I cannot know because the NPRA works independently.

“Of course, we want them to approve safe vaccines as quickly as possible, but there is no shortcut. We should not force or chase NPRA to make any decision soon, they must be allowed to do the work.

“(Only then will) Malaysians… be glad that there is no pressure on our regulator. That is very important.”

He assured that there will be no human trials conducted as part of the regulation of the vaccine. 

The minister added that at the moment, all existing Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) will still need to be adhered by individuals who have been vaccinated.

“By the advice from our health director-general, we will maintain all SOP. Even if you are vaccinated and the guy next to you is vaccinated, please wear your masks.

“It is not because we are not confident with the vaccines but it is because we simply do not have enough data yet.”

Malaysia is scheduled to obtain 14 million doses of the Sinovac vaccines in stages that will protect 22% of its population against Covid-19. – February 27, 2021.