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Pharmaniaga, the sole distributor of the Sinovac vaccine in Malaysia, noted that earlier on Monday (Oct 4), Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced that the Drug Control Authority had approved the use of the Sinovac vaccine for children and adolescents aged 12 to 17.
In a statement on Monday, the company said the Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) analysis of the 63 million adolescents who have received the Sinovac vaccine in China suggests that the vaccine has an overall good safety profile.
"The data collected were mainly routine injection site events with normal symptoms such as dizziness and nausea, which is very mild in nature," the group added.
Pharmaniaga group managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope said the vaccine has been widely administered to the younger population in China and to date, there has been no record of any safety risk following vaccination.
"We acknowledge the concern by parents on the effectiveness and the side effects of the vaccine and we assure you that based on the data of more than 63 million doses administered in China, it's proven to be effective in protecting the children and adolescents from the virus.
"The Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine is developed using inactivated virus which is a well-established technology of more than 40 years that is also being used commonly in many types of vaccine currently available in the market including for polio, Hepatitis A and rabies," he added.
Zulkarnain also noted that the Sinovac vaccine will be made available at selected private hospitals and clinics very soon as an option for parents who wish to have the vaccine administered to their children.
"We hope with this effort, the much-awaited education sector could see normalisation, especially [among] the secondary-school children.
"With China moving to vaccinate children three to 11 years of age, we will apply for approval for these ages once enough safety data are made available to allow normalisation of pre- and primary-school sectors," he added.
At 2.44pm on Monday, Pharamaniaga's share price gained 1.5 sen or 1.79% to 85.5 sen, valuing the group at RM1.12 billion.
Ren Ecosystem