With much emphasis in agricultural development in the recent Ninth Malaysian Plan, agricultural livestock health has been an area of increasing importance to maintain optimal output of our nation’s animal resources. With the myriad of diseases threatening the integrity of our nation’s livestock, vaccination has been a significant tool in curbing widespread livestock endemics and increasing livestock profitability.

Malaysian Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals Sdn. Bhd. (MVP) started out as a privatization and commercialization initiative by the Veterinary Research Institute (VRI), Arthur Webster Pty Ltd., and the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) in 1992. An initial plant of three acres was set up in Puchong, and by 1995, the VRI and University Putra Malaysia (UPM) were pulled into the management to improve the existent production system and quality. The company was able to increase sales by 1.8 million units in 1997 despite the economic downturn and has not looked back.

The company currently has 15 products on the market and offers a range of veterinary diagnostic services like flock profiling. MVP is the first and only veterinary vaccine manufacturing company in Malaysia, and is still growing strong. The company currently has a strong foothold in ASEAN countries, providing for countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand etc;, and it is also occupying a small share in the Chinese vaccine markets.

The array of their commercial products include MyVac K831 a vaccine cocktail which vaccinates fowls from Newcastle disease, Infectious Bronchitis and Egg Drop Syndrome. All of which have the potential to cause severe impacts upon the poultry industry in the event of a pandemic. Another product would be the MVP Duck Pasteurellosis Vaccine which protects the birds from avian pasteurellosis, which may cause high mortality rates among ducklings.

So, where could the industry expect to see MVP moving towards in the near future? Speaking to MVP Executive Director Dr Mazlan Mohamad, he assures that MVP would be very much planning on scaling up its optimal production capacity in anticipation of its next step. By then, MVP would be working to penetrate the largely untapped Middle Eastern and Indian markets and scaling up production accordingly.

In terms of R&D, MVP is currently formulating autogenous vaccines for swine herds. Autogenous vaccines are bacterial vaccines that are manufactured from the specific pathogenic bacteria isolated from the diseased pig. Currently, MVP has a vaccine under the preliminary testing phase and is slated to undergo further field trials soon.