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KUALA LUMPUR: A Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be ready by the end of this year or early next year if its ongoing development process in China runs smoothly, according to a Chinese medical expert.
Sun Yat-sen University doctor and postdoctoral researcher in China, Sun Jiufeng, said the republic is currently developing two different vaccines, and both are now in phase two of clinical trials expected to be completed in May or June.
He said that once the results of phase two were ready, they would move on to phase three of the clinical trials, which could take longer to complete and would involve more volunteers.
“Currently, everyone has been accelerating the development of vaccines. If everything goes smoothly, then perhaps we can see the vaccine later this year or early next.
“However, for the actual application of this vaccine, because the need is really high, I think it’s safe to say that the vaccine will definitely be used in patients next year,” he said, speaking through a translator.
He said this during an exclusive interview with Bernama at the Chinese embassy here today.
Sun said his team had had discussions with Malaysia and had shown great interest in participating in the development of the vaccine in China, especially in phase three of the clinical trials.
“If we really cooperate on this, it will certainly speed up the time for vaccine development and also bring many benefits to Malaysia,” he added.
Also present at the interview were Chief Medical Officer, Professor and Graduate Supervisor of Integrated Chinese and Western Emergency Medicine, Li Jun, and Associate Professor, Graduate Supervisor, ICU Associate Chief Physician, People’s Hospital Guangdong Provincial Wen Miaoyun.
Meanwhile, Li said there has been a lot of debate about alternative treatments for Covid-19 that have not shown clinical evidence of their effectiveness.
However, he said, traditional Chinese medicine has been largely applied to treat Covid-19 patients at home and has been shown to be quite effective.
“We have shared our experience of this effectiveness with our colleagues in Malaysia. We also hope that, if the situation allows, Malaysia can introduce traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of Covid-19 as soon as possible to benefit patients.
“The specific medication is different depending on patients and situations. So we applied different medications to different patients and made sure they were appropriate for those situations, “he added.
The team of eight Chinese medical professionals arrived in Kuala Lumpur on April 18 and recently met with local experts, including Director General of Health Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah.
Yesterday, Noor Hisham said that these Chinese medical experts praised Malaysia for its swift and effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including enforcing the Movement Control Order. – Bernama
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