PETALING JAYA: Pharmaceutical company Pharmaniaga Bhd posted a net profit of RM85.48 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2021, a significant turnaround from a net loss of RM6.33 million a year ago, in tandem with a stronger top line.
Revenue increased by 12% to RM711.72 million from RM634.58 million in the previous corresponding quarter, mainly due to growth across the concession, non-concession and Indonesian businesses.
For the full year, Pharmaniaga saw a record net profit of RM172.15 million, which increased more than sixfold from RM27.49 million in the preceding year, on the back of a 77% surge in revenue to RM4.82 billion from RM2.73 billion previously. The surge was largely due to the supply of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the private sector, followed by higher contributions from the group’s concession, non-concession and Indonesian operations.
Pharmaniaga group managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope said it was entrusted by the government in 2021 to conduct fill and finish manufacturing of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine and supply the vaccine and finished vaccine to the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).
“With the strong support by MOH, we have fulfilled the contract 4½ months earlier than schedule, and to date we have supplied a total of 20.4 million doses to NIP and 2.5 million doses to the private sector,” he said in a statement
Zulkarnain is optimistic that the demand for Covid-19 vaccines will remain high going forward as now children are allowed to be vaccinated.
“With the current capabilities that we have, we intend to supply the vaccine to countries in this region. Myanmar is the first country that we have supplied to, with 30,000 doses, en route to other Asean countries
“Apart from that, we will continue to place emphasis on the research and development of biopharmaceuticals, vaccines and insulins to bolster our product portfolio. We have a large and capable R&D team to formulate our own generic pharmaceutical products, allowing Pharmaniaga to capture new markets,“ Zulkarnain said.
Besides that, it inked a memorandum of collaboration with Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council in November last year to supply and distribute Hepatitis C drug to the designated hospitals and clinics, which will provide another source of recurring income. The 10-year logistics and distribution concession business with MOH is being finalised.
On its Indonesian operations, Zulkarnain said it reorganised the division in 2021 to enhance its operational efficiency, including appointment of a local as president commissioner to strategise its logistics arm in Jakarta and a local president director for its manufacturing arm in Bandung.
“We have been in Indonesia since 2004 and with the new strategies in place, which include opening another five to 10 distribution centres to the existing 33 throughout the country, we believe the venture will register significant growth in three to five years.
“Pharmaniaga will continue efforts to expand our presence in Asean countries of almost 700 million population, with our products. Our regulatory affairs team will engage with the regulatory bodies of these countries as part of our mission to register more of our products there,” he added.
Zulkarnain said the group will establish a biopharma division to focus on the development, production and distribution of biopharmaceutical products to the regional, Mena (Middle East & Northern African) and African countries.
“We will need about three years to strengthen all our business segments before we will see significant yields and results from these international market expansion plans. All these will be shaped and guided by analysing data from our operations and market feedback, to promote and market our products and services on various digital platforms,” he said.
The group declared a fourth interim dividend of 5.0 sen per share, which will be paid on April 5, 2022 to shareholders. After adjusting for the four-for-one bonus issue completed in July 2021, the total dividend per share in respect of FY21 amounted to 9.3 sen.
