By Christopher Lidom
KUCHING, March 30: Injectable drug Tzield (teplizumab-mzwv) can delay the onset of Type 1 Stage 3 Diabetes in high risk patients, says Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
She said the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has approved the drug as the new therapies for Type 1 Diabetes.
“As of March 8, 2023, no application for this product has been received by National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).
“However, NPRA is willing to accept registration applications for the drug and the assessment for the purpose of registration of the drug will be made based on existing registration guidelines,” she said.
Dr. Zaliha said this in the Dewan Negara on March 28, in her reply to Senator Datuk Paul Igai’s query regarding the increasing number of diabetes cases and the latest drugs produced to overcome the disease.
Meanwhile, Paul also asked Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation yesterday (March 29) regarding the development status of Covid-19 vaccine implemented by Ministry of Health (MOH).
In his reply, Minister Chang Lih Kang said it is currently in at groundwork stage. For the studies involving inactivated virus platform, it is also still in pre-clinical stage and expected to be completed in December 2023.
“In terms of the production of mRNA vaccine candidates, it requires an improvement process to ensure that the mRNA vaccine can generate enough protein.
“In addition, research on how to deliver the mRNA vaccine using lipid nanoparticles will begin in 2023,” he said. – DayakDaily.
