The first delivery of the CanSino Biologics’ Covid-19 vaccine doses will arrive in Malaysia sometime in July, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. 

However, Putrajaya has still not received a response from the Covax vaccine-sharing facility on when the Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses can be delivered to Malaysia, said Khairy, who's also the minister in charge of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

“We are about to receive the vaccine supply (from CanSino) in July. We are still finalising the delivery schedule for CanSino, but I am confident we can start distributing the CanSino vaccines by the end of July.

“For the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, we have yet to receive any response from the Covax facility.

“We have exercised our option with Covax to choose the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but until today Covax has yet to send any delivery schedule for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Malaysia,” Khairy said today.

He was speaking at a joint press conference with Health Minister Dr Adham Baba held in Putrajaya and broadcasted online simultaneously.

It was reported on June 15 that the Drug Control Authority (DCA) had approved both the CanSino and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines for conditional use in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Khairy said Duopharma Biotech Bhd has up to three months to register Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) for use in Malaysia. The DCA is an executive body under the NPRA.

This comes after Duopharma reportedly signed an agreement with the government on June 1 to supply 6.4 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to Malaysia.

“The agreement, signed by the health minister, gives them (Duopharma) three months to register the vaccine with the NPRA.

“I understand the NPRA still needs some more stability data before making any decisions, but the NPRA said the registration process will be made easier if the Sputnik V vaccine gets the emergency use listing from the World Health Organisation (WHO),” Khairy said.

Currently, Sputnik V has not yet received emergency use listing from the WHO.

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