PM: Msia Ready to Provide Support for Covid-19 Vaccine Development [NSTTV]

PAGOH: Malaysia is prepared to provide assistance in the development of a Covid-19 vaccine, which is being undertaken by several countries around the world.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said in April, the Health Ministry established a task force to look into providing support for developing a vaccine for the deadly virus.

“This effort is to explore strategic cooperation opportunities with other countries in the research and development of vaccines and medicines for Covid-19,” said Muhyiddin in his speech at the launch of the Embracing New Norms campaign here, today.

The government, he said, is monitoring closely the Covid-19 situation not only in the country but also around the world.

“I learned that several countries are in the process of developing a vaccine for Covid-19.

“However, it is likely that the process of developing the vaccine will take some time and most likely (the process could be completed) by early 2021,” he said.

It was reported that researchers and pharmaceutical companies around the world are racing to develop and test a vaccine for the virus.

AFP last month reported that there are more than 150 projects on vaccine development by private Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech.

According to the same report, the vaccine has entered the final stage of testing in Brazil, where volunteers received the first dose.

In another report, a study by the New England Journal of Medicine found that a vaccine developed by a United States biotech firm has managed to induce a robust immune response and prevented the virus from replicating in the noses and lungs of monkeys.

The vaccine by Moderna, according to the report, uses genetic material in the form of viral ribonucleic acid to encode the information needed to grow the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein inside the body of humans, which will subsequently trigger an immune response.