HALAL COVID-19 vaccine will soon become a common sight in Malaysia with more healthcare industry players seeing a demand for such product to overcome socio-religious controversies.
Towards this end, MY E.G. Services Bhd has partnered Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical Co Ltd (Zhifei) to obtain Malaysian Halal certification for the Chinese biopharma company’s COVID-19 vaccine and to exclusively distribute it in Malaysia for a three-year period.
On Saturday (Dec 5), both companies signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct phase three clinical trials of Zhifei’s vaccine in Malaysia and to achieve compliance to the halal status requirements from the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim).
As an internationally-recognised standard, Jakim’s halal accreditation will ensure increased acceptance of the vaccine among the global Muslim population.
The commencement of phase three trial will make Zhifei’s vaccine one of the first to undergo this final stage trial in Malaysia under the purview of the Ministry of Health.
Listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Zhifei is a subsidiary of Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products Co Ltd . It has been engaged in the biological products industry since 2002, mainly the production of vaccines for human use.
Zhifei is presently one of five Chinese companies conducting phase three clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccines in various parts of the world.
Upon successful completion of this phase, MyEG will be the sole distributor of the vaccine in Malaysia.
With a holistic business approach becoming the new norm in the post-COVID era, MyEG’s cooperation with Zhifei represents a fitting and important complement to the group’s other related initiatives that are already ongoing.
Since Nov 1, MyEG has been appointed by the Health Ministry to develop and operate the MySafeTravel digital health pass system to facilitate inbound travellers’ compliance to mandatory COVID-19 testing and quarantine requirements.
Additionally, MyEG also operates a one-stop portal for the COVID-19 screening of workers in the country, which includes a data sharing collaboration with the Department of Labour of Peninsular Malaysia. – Dec 7, 2020
