KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has approved CanSino’s single-dose Convidecia vaccine to be used as a heterologous booster with all Covid-19 primary vaccines in Malaysia.

Solution Group Bhd (SGB), the Asean manufacturing partner of CanSino Biologics Inc in a statement, said the vaccine was approved for adults aged 18 years and above, regardless of the type of vaccine they received during their earlier Covid-19 vaccination.

The statement also stated that Convidecia will be given as a booster dose after at least three months of recipients receiving the second dose of their primary vaccination.

“It is also the first and only Covid-19 vaccine from China to be included in the heterologous vaccination programme in Malaysia that can be administered as a mix-and-match with both Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines,” it said Thursday (June 30).

In the same statement, SGB’s deputy group managing director Datuk Dr Mohd Nazlee Kamal said recent studies in China showed that usage of Convidecia as a heterologous booster, via either intramuscular injection or using the inhaled version, generated greater neutralising antibody responses.

In addition, he said the vaccine’s safety profile in real-life usage was also backed by the Mexican health authorities’ Events Supposedly Attributable to Vaccination or Immunisation (ESAVI) Report released recently. – Bernama