KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia needs to beef up its medical biotechnology expertise and logistics preparedness to face the increasing risks of virus outbreaks.
Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Lam Sai Kit, who is Universiti Malaya’s research consultant in virology, said these were among the key areas the government should address before embarking on setting up a vaccine research centre.
Speaking to the New Sunday Times, Dr Lam, who is also Senior Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, said Malaysia needed adequate manpower, skill and infrastructure, including a high-technology biosecurity laboratory.
In light of the Covid-19 outbreak in China, which had spread to more than 20 countries, including Malaysia, he said it was important for the country to be prepared with the expertise to investigate, diagnose, manage and prevent the infectious disease from spreading.
“To be in a state of preparedness means we must have adequate trained medical staff, including clinical, nursing, epidemiology experts, high lab facilities to deal with high-risk viruses, trained laboratory personnel to use the latest technologies to diagnose the causative agents and good isolation facilities.”
BIOSECURITY LABORATORIES
He said it was time Malaysia invested in biosecurity laboratories (in the BSL-3 and BSL-4 categories) to work with highly dangerous viruses such as Nipah, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Ebola and other novel viruses that might emerge.
Biological Safety Level (BSL) 3 labs typically include work on microbes that are either indigenous or exotic, and can cause serious or potentially lethal disease through inhalation.
Malaysia has three BSL-3 laboratories, which handle potentially deadly pathogens like anthrax and the plague.
BSL-4, meanwhile, works with highly dangerous and exotic microbes, where infections are frequently fatal, and come without treatment or vaccines.
There are fewer than 40 BSL-4 facilities in the world and none in Malaysia.
“Malaysia has never faced major outbreaks. Even Nipah was confined to the pig farming industry, not the community. There were very few cases of SARS, avian flu or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in Malaysia to test our readiness on a larger scale,” he said, noting that while he had no conflicts with those who supported the idea of a vaccine research centre, he felt this was more pivotal.
“Perhaps we should think of building BSL-4 facilities and production plants to manufacture our own mandatory vaccines first before setting up research and development to study novel virus and vaccines.”
Dr Lam, who is central to the 1998 discovery of the Nipah virus that causes severe disease in both animals and humans, said that during the Nipah virus outbreak, scientists were deprived of doing fundamental research as there were no BSL-4 facilities.
“Building high-containment biological laboratories (HCBLs) that work with BSL-3 and BSL-4 pathogens is more a priority than a new vaccine research and development centre.”
COST-PROHIBITIVE
He said it would be cost-prohibitive for Malaysia to research vaccines for new viruses causing outbreaks like Covid-19, especially when such outbreaks are unpredictable.
“Look at the case for SARS. After the outbreak in 2002 and 2003, candidate vaccines were produced but they remain sitting on the shelf because it never came back in a big way to justify its use in any part of the world. A lot of investment would have been wasted, and we can’t afford to do this.”
Dr Lam said the initiative to rush into novel vaccine production should be left to international agencies such as the World Health Organisation, the United States’ Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, well-developed laboratories and pharmaceutical companies that might work in collaboration with non-governmental organisations and universities.
“Nowadays, it is possible to fast-track the production of vaccines using new technologies. This is clearly exemplified by the situation with Covid-19, where candidate vaccines are already being tested in animals within a short span of two months and the sharing of the full genome sequence of the virus.”
In the case of Covid-19 vaccines, he said scientists were unsure how long the outbreak would last.
“For SARS, it took 20 months to produce a vaccine. By then the outbreak was over since it lasted only about eight months. It has not reappeared in any significant way since. It is a very risky venture to produce a new vaccine with an uncertain future.”
VACCINE PRODUCTION
However, Dr Lam said there was a greater need for mandatory vaccine to be manufactured in Malaysia.
On the production of pre-existing mandatory vaccines, he said manufacturing our own vaccines would save the country money and make Malaysia less dependent on imported supplies.
“As for other vaccines like influenza, we face a shortage right now because there is a big global demand because of the H1N1 outbreaks. This shortage is very acute and has been going on for months. We should not be so dependent on external supply and let our people run the risk of infection and even death.
“Hence the obvious need to have a vaccine production plant in the country. If other developing countries like India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand can do it, why can’t Malaysia?”