AUG 14 — Despite being proactive in demonstrating its capabilities and signalling that it is keen to participate in clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine, late-stage clinical trials are being conducted elsewhere, leaving Malaysia in the lurch. Our country has been pushing for access to Covid-19...
Friday, 14 Aug 2020 05:59 PM MYT
Malaysia is a unique avenue for clinical trials due to its advantageous demographics as well as the availability of highly trained medical professionals and infrastructure. By early April, there was news of a joint clinical trial to investigate the effectiveness of an arthritis medicine to treat severe coronavirus cases which involved Malaya Medical Centre and three Ministry of Health hospitals.
As mentioned by Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham, the government has been in discussion with several countries that can produce a vaccine against the coronavirus, and that Malaysia can contribute in the manufacturing of vaccines. As revealed by Datuk Dr Noor Hisham, unsuccessful price negotiations in 2017 with Gilead Sciences, an American biopharmaceutical company, forced Malaysia to use compulsory licensing for the Hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir.
Making treatments accessible to the public should be a mutual agenda yet both sides of the table would have very different views on issues such as access, IP, prices, budgetary constraints and a host of other matters. What is clear is that the two sides need to know each other’s perspectives better, and have frequent and transparent dialogue in order to find an amicable solution.
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