Pharmaniaga to supply 12 million doses of CoronaVac to health ministry

PETALING JAYA: Pharmaniaga Bhd will supply 12 million doses of CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine to the Ministry of Health (MOH), following the signing of an agreement by both parties today.

Pharmaniaga recently signed a deal with CoronaVac’s developer Sinovac Lifesciences Co Ltd of China to obtain the bulk supply of the vaccine which will be manufactured fill and finish at its high-tech plant.

The deal includes the vaccine technology transfer to the company.

Pharmaniaga group managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope said it will manufacture fill and finish CoronaVac as well as handle the logistics and distribution of the vaccine to the government designated hospitals, clinics and other facilities.

“Our wholly owned subsidiary Pharmaniaga LifesSience Sdn Bhd (PLS) will manufacture fill and finish CoronaVac at its EU and GMP certified Small Volume Injectable plant which has been repurposed for this project. We expect to receive the first bulk supply of CoronaVac from Sinovac in February.

“Meanwhile, the logistics and distribution of CoronaVac will be carried out by Pharmaniaga Logistics Sdn Bhd (PLSB) which has 26 years’ experience in managing vaccine distribution and has well established infrastructure to support the needs. In view of the unprecedented situation, we have beefed up the security aspect of the logistics of the vaccine,” he said.

Zulkarnain said Sinovac’s preliminary results from the Phase 3 clinical trial conducted on the general population in Turkey had shown CoronaVac’s efficacy at 91.25%.

Zulkarnain said CoronaVac has been registered and approved for emergency use in China, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey, with presidents Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Joko Widodo themselves have taken the vaccine.

“Despite the encouraging development on the use of CoronaVac, we must adhere to the regulations in Malaysia and let the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) review the dossier and relevant documents of the vaccine which we have submitted. Subject to NPRA’s approval, we will have the vaccines available for use as soon as end-March or early April.”

Once CoronaVac gets registered with NPRA, PLS will be the product registration holder and exclusive distributor, authorised by Sinovac for Malaysian market of finished products both locally manufactured or imported from China for the government and the private sectors.