Covid-19 vaccines worth RM185 million expired and discarded

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad revealed that around 9.2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, valued at approximately RM185 million, had expired and were subsequently discarded.

During today’s Dewan Rakyat session, he said that expired vaccines accounted for 10.8% of the 84.5 million doses received by the government since the national immunisation programme started on February 24, 2021.

“A total of 9,159,151 doses of various Covid-19 vaccines that were stored at Health Ministry facilities and storehouses were found to have expired as of June 11, 2024.

“The losses include vaccines that expired due to logistical issues such as stock keeping, storage and others,” he said.

Dzulkefly mentioned that the ministry did not assign blame for the loss, citing the absence of procurement guidelines for the vaccines.

He further elaborated that the significant vaccine loss was attributed to Malaysia’s healthcare system being tested by a widespread pandemic for the first time.

“The ministers before me did not have SOPs, best practices or benchmarking because it was the first time we had faced a pandemic.

“But now we know what standard operating procedures to apply and the best practices for any future pandemic if it happens,” he added.