KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — The Health Ministry announced today that it has granted conditional approval for the Comirnaty vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech to be used as a booster shot six months after the second dose.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the Covid-19 vaccine booster dose for those aged 18 and above was decided during the 365th meeting with Malaysia’s Drug Control Authority (DCA) earlier today.

"The meeting gave conditional approval for a booster dose of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine, Comirnaty Concentrate for Dispersion for Injection (Comirnaty) produced by Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium NV (Belgium) and BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH, Germany, after at least six months of the second dose for those aged 18 and above,” he said in a statement today.

Dr Noor Hisham said that the Cominarty vaccine is the first to be approved for booster dose in Malaysia.

Previously, Dr Noor Hisham announced that Malaysia has given conditional approval for two new vaccine variants which need only one dose to be administered.

The vaccines are the Convidecia Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Vaccine (Adenovirus Type 5 Vector), produced by CanSino Biologics Inc, China, and the Janssen Covid-19 Vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

Dr Noor Hisham announced that the Comirnaty vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech has also been approved for use in those aged 12 and above.