Malaysia mulls over local animal vaccines production

Malaysia can save millions of ringgit annually if the Veterinary Research Institute (VRI) is used to produce animal vaccines, Veterinary Services Department director-general Dr Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin said.

However, Aziz said this could only happen if the old equipment being used in laboratories were replaced with new ones as VRI was a pioneer in the production of animal vaccines in the country.

"Malaysia imports vaccines and pharmaceuticals worth MYR650 million (US$192 million) annually while our researchers are capable of producing them locally. We can't produce the animal vaccines due to lack of equipment," he said.

He would discuss with the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry so that VRI could produce at least 30% of vaccines as they would not only be cheaper but also more effective than imported ones.