KUALA LUMPUR: Over nine million doses of Covid-19 vaccines procured during the pandemic expired in June, resulting in a RM185mil loss for the government, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
The Health Minister said expired vaccines comprised about 10.8% of the overall procured vaccine doses during the pandemic, which totalled 84.5 million doses as of February 2021.
“A total of 9,159,151 Covid-19 vaccine doses of various brands that were stored at the ministry’s facilities and storehouses were found to have expired as of June 11. This includes vaccines that expired due to logistical issues such as stock keeping, storage and others,” he said in Parliament.Dzulkefly also explained that the heavy loss of vaccines was due to it being the first time Malaysia’s healthcare system was tested by a widespread pandemic.
“But now we know the standard operating procedures to apply and the best practices for any future pandemic, if it happens,” he added.
Dzulkefly was responding to a question from Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias (BN-Jelebu) who inquired on the amount of Covid-19 vaccines procured by the government that had expired and estimated losses suffered as a result.The minister said the disposal and records of inventory were conducted in accordance with the ministry’s existing asset and store management guidelines.
He added that a total of 72 million vaccine doses were administered under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme which began in 2021.
Malaysia’s Covid-19 vaccine stockpile was a result of it receiving 5.03 million doses contributed by countries such as Japan, United States, China, Britain, United Arab Emirates and Singapore. This was in addition to the almost 80 million doses that was procured by the government at the time in 2021.Vaccines that were procured included Pfizer’s Comirnaty, Sinopharm, Sinovac’s CoronaVac as well as the AstraZeneca.
According to the White Paper on Covid-19 Vaccine Procurement Management that was released in Parliament last year, RM4.482bil had been spent on Covid-19 vaccine procurement and logistics as of April 30, 2023.
