KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today suggested that the government set a ceiling price for private sales of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine.
PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh, who is DAP’s Ipoh Timur MP, noted that the government would permit the sale of Sinovac shots from local pharmaceutical company Pharmaniaga Bhd to the general public from next month.
“It is necessary to set a price ceiling, comprising the price of vaccines from Pharmaniaga, as well as the charges by private clinics or hospitals, so that vaccination is charged appropriately without burdening the people,” Wong said in a statement.
“This committee takes note that the prices for Covid-19 vaccination have already started to be promoted; these prices are rather high compared to what should be the appropriate price,” he added, without elaborating on what an appropriate price for vaccination with the Sinovac shot should be.
The PAC chairman added that Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who heads the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), briefed the PAC proceedings today on Covid-19 vaccine procurement and the use of vaccines on Malaysians. This was Khairy’s second briefing to the PAC.
The powerful Dewan Rakyat committee will call Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz tomorrow, as well as Health Minister Dr Adham Baba and Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah next week on the issue.
The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry said in a separate statement that its delegation, led by Khairy and the ministry’s secretary-general Siti Hamisah Tapsir, briefed the three-hour PAC proceeding about the progress of PICK and expenditure of the vaccination programme.
“MOSTI is prepared to give subsequent explanations to the PAC until the end of PICK.”
