Pharmaniaga expected to deliver 12.4 mln doses of Sinovac vaccine in July

KUALA LUMPUR: Pharmaniaga LifeScience Sdn Bhd (PLS), a subsidiary company of Pharmaniaga Berhad (Pharmaniaga), is expected to deliver 12.4 million doses of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to the government by next week, instead of November under the original agreement.

Pharmaniaga managing director, Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope said the supply was being hastened by four months following the surge in cases since April while PLS was operating 24 hours each day in order to achieve the target.

Zulkarnain said up to now, PLS had delivered 11.5 million doses or 93 percent of the Sinovac vaccine, comprising 3.6 million doses through ‘fill and finish’ manufacturing and 7.9 million doses of the finished product that was imported.

“Pharmaniaga had signed a contract to supply about 12 million doses of the vaccine to the government, whereby under the contract, we have to complete the delivery by November.

“However, due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country, we (Pharmaniaga) have asked for speedier delivery. Alhamdulillah, we have done a ‘mix and match’, whereby we import the finished product (Sinovac) from China to be supplied to the government,” he said during a virtual media conference today on the latest developments pertaining to the Sinovac vaccine distribution.

He added that so far, PLS had supplied 5.5 million doses of the vaccine through ‘fill and finish’ manufacturing and out of this number, 3.6 million doses that were approved by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) had been delivered.

He also said that Pharmaniaga was prepared to provide additional supply of the vaccine as requested by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the company would offer an additional supply of two million doses to the government.

“We are waiting for further directive from the government…if it wishes to obtain this supply, we will give our cooperation and deliver it before the end of July,” he said.

Zulkanain also announced that Pharmaniaga was also prepared to supply the vaccine to the state governments and private sector after completing its supply to the federal government.

He said till now, PLS had received the orders for five million doses of the vaccine from state governments and the private sector. — Bernama