PUTRAJAYA: State governments are allowed to procure their own vaccine supplies with the condition they obtain approval from the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).
National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) is aware of the types of vaccines the state governments are trying to purchase.
"For example, Selangor is trying to buy vaccines from the same pharmaceutical company as the NIP. Based on the agreement between the federal government and the vaccine manufacturers, the vaccine supplies that have already been booked must and need to be prioritised to the federal government for the NIP.
"This is before any vaccine supplies are channelled by the pharmaceutical companies involved to other parties.
"This includes state governments, industry players or private hospitals that have booked and purchased the vaccines after the federal government, unless the supplier is not involved in the NIP," he said in a statement today.
Khairy reiterated that the vaccine doses, which are administered free, are sufficient to cater to all eligible people in each state under the NIP.
Separately, Khairy said the CITF welcomes any efforts from other parties that want to assist the NIP by contributing vaccine doses to the federal or state governments.
"CITF is aware of the intention of the Sekhar Foundation to contribute Sinovac vaccines to the NIP. However, after checking with Sinovac in China and Pharmaniaga, which is the license holder of the Sinovac in Malaysia, it was found that there was no application, procurement or even an official document submitted by the company on it," he said.
Khairy added that the government has no objections to the Sekhar Foundation or other parties on such an effort but it has to be done through proper channels.
Currently, three vaccines that have received the approval from NPRA are Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca.