Materia Medica Malaysiana

Two foreign firms keen to set up vaccine plants

KUALA LUMPUR: Two foreign companies have expressed interest to set up vaccine production plants in the country to address the shortage of vaccine supply in future, said Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng.

He said the two companies from South Korea and India would brief Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi about their intention to set up high-tech vaccine plants.

“Currently, the amount of vaccines produced in the world is limited.

“We have to look into our own vaccine production, as we don’t have any vaccine manufacturing plants. This will be done through participation of foreign companies,” he said during a visit to witness a demonstration on the use of a microwave endometrial ablation machine at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department in Kuala Lumpur Hospital yesterday.

He said the Government would encourage the companies to set up the plants in the Biovalley in Dengkil, Selangor.

Chua said the plants would complement research and development projects by the National Institute for Natural Products and Vaccinology so that the country would become self-sufficient in the production of vaccines.

On the Fujian flu that swept through Europe and the United States and hit Hong Kong, Chua said the World Health Organisation had informed him that Malaysia and other parts of the Asian region were free from the Fujian flu virus.

He said the public should not be duly alarmed over the outbreak in the United States.

However, he said Malaysians, particularly children and the elderly, planning to travel to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan should get the flu vaccine.

He said the ministry was aware that there was a shortage of flu vaccine in the country as the amount produced was limited and the vaccine was mostly used in countries that experience a flu season such as those in the northern hemisphere.

“For example, the United States requires 70 million to 80 million doses every year but when there is an epidemic, more people would go for vaccination,” he said.

He added that when a flu epidemic occurred in the United States, the supplier could not export the vaccine.