KUALA LUMPUR – The use of an inactivated virus in a COVID-19 vaccine is being considered to be safer and more reliable in the battle against the worst pandemic in history.
Malaysian Public Health Physicians Association (PPPKAM) president, Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar, said inactivated virus vaccine technology has been proven to work for 40 years.
“An inactivated virus vaccine uses a weakened virus to induce a better immune response.
“If we look at the polio, influenza and rabies epidemics … all of them were brought under control with an inactivated virus vaccine.
“So I am confident that this vaccine is suitable for widespread use to successfully break the chain of COVID-19 transmission,” he told Bernama today.
On Wednesday (Jan 27), Malaysia commenced a phase 3 clinical trial for an inactivated vaccine containing the SARS-CoV-2 antigen at nine hospitals and involving 3,000 volunteers.
The objective of the study sponsored by the Institute of Medical Biology Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (IMBCAMS), China is to determine vaccine safety and efficacy.
Taking the CoronaVac inactivated virus vaccine by Sinovac Lifesciences Co Ltd as an example, Dr Zainal said it was easier to distribute across the country – including to the interior – because of its minimal storage requirement.
“It requires a temperature of between 2°C and 8°C, which is the temperature of refrigerators normally found at public hospitals and clinics. This indirectly makes the distribution process easier and faster,” he said.
On Tuesday (Jan 26), Pharmaniaga Bhd inked an agreement with the Ministry of Health to supply 12 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine when the first batch arrives next month.
It will be made available to Malaysians at the end of March or in early April.
The CoronaVac vaccine has been registered and approved for emergency use in China, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.
Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, have been given the vaccine.
Effective
Another coronavirus vaccine candidate from American pharmaceutical company Novavax is over 89 per cent effective in preventing people from contracting COVID-19, the drug maker announced.
The Maryland-based company announced the results of its phase 3 trials in the UK, which were done in coordination with that country’s vaccine task force and included the more transmissible, and possible more deadly, UK variant.
The protein-based vaccine was tested in trials that included over 20,000 participants.
“NVX-CoV2373 is the first vaccine to demonstrate not only high clinical efficacy against COVID-19 but also significant clinical efficacy against both the rapidly emerging UK and South Africa variants,” Novavax President Stanley Erck said in a statement, using the company’s name for its candidate.
“NVX-CoV2373 has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis. We look forward to continuing to work with our partners, collaborators, investigators and regulators around the world to make the vaccine available as quickly as possible,” he added.
A separate Phase 2b trial was also conducted in South Africa, which showed the drug is not anywhere close to being as effective against a variant tearing through that country.
That phase two trial concluded with an efficacy of just 49.4 per cent when about 92 per cent of those with COVID-19 had the South Africa variant.
That trial was much smaller than the one in the UK with just 4,400 participants.
Block vaccine export
The European Union in a related development, may block the exports of the vaccine against the coronavirus developed by Pfizer to the United Kingdom to retain stable vaccine supplies for its member states, reported Sputnik news agency.
The European Union is studying an opportunity to resort to “urgent measures to ensure effective vaccine production and supply for our (EU) population,” the Independent media outlet reported on late Thursday, citing a leaked letter by European Council President Charles Michel.
The “vaccine war” has been sparked by the decision of the company AstraZeneca to guarantee supplies to the United Kingdom while delaying deliveries to the European Union over production problems.
London has already ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, whose delivery is currently under a threat.
“This would give the EU and member states the legal means, by adopting appropriate urgent measures, to ensure effective vaccine production and supply for our population,” Michel said in the letter commenting on the possible exports ban.
The EU official reportedly added that he had made this suggestion to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
Another media outlet, Politico, reported on Thursday that the European Union had decided to introduce on Friday a mechanism that would allow the member states to block vaccine exports worldwide.
The plan reportedly envisages that the EU will grant special authorisations to make the vaccine exports possible. The bloc will grant such permits only after making sure that the producers had delivered the number of doses to the member states anchored in the advanced purchasing agreements.
Two officials told Politico that poor countries and the international mechanism of COVAX would be exempted from the authorisation requirement.
