Dr. Noor Hisham: AstraZeneca and CoronaVac were granted conditional approval as Covid-19 booster

Malaysia – The 366th Drug Control Authority (DCA) has given their permission to provide conditional clearance for the use of both the AstraZeneca and CoronaVac vaccines as a Covid-19 booster dosage to those who are aged 18 and above who have already had a main series of immunization from the same kind of vaccine (homologous).

The booster dosage for the AstraZeneca vaccine would be administered six months after the initial two shots, according to Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the director-general of health.

Meanwhile for CoronaVac, after the initial two doses of the vaccine have been given, a booster dose would be administered three to six months later.

The health director-general also added that the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force-Booster (CITF-B) will choose who receives the booster dose for both vaccinations, and it will be disclosed on a regular basis.

DCA also granted conditional clearance registration for AstraZeneca Solution for Injection vaccine from the third producer, SK Bioscience Co., during the meeting held recently, according to Dr. Noor Hisham. The vaccine’s registration is held by AstraZeneca Sdn. Ltd. of South Korea. Bhd.

He stated that the DCA had already provided conditional registration approval to the first producer, AstraZeneca Nijmegen B.V. of the Netherlands, and Siam Bioscience Co., Ltd. of Thailand.

He explained that conditional registration approval necessitates data on the vaccine’s quality, safety, and efficacy, which must be monitored and assessed on a regular basis based on the most recent information.

According to Dr. Noor Hisham, it’s also to guarantee that the vaccine’s advantages outweighed the risk. He stated that the Health Ministry (MOH) has always been working to improve accessibility to Covid-19 vaccines in Malaysia by making sure that it is examined by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) for quality, safety, and efficacy before being authorized for use by DCA.