Pharmaniaga has 3m Sinovac doses in excess supply, Dewan Rakyat told

 

A local pharmaceutical firm is holding over three million doses in excess supply of Covid-19 vaccine in its storage, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Noh Omar (BN-Tanjung Karang) said this when questioning why state governments and private companies have yet to be able to purchase vaccines on their own.

Noh said Pharmaniaga, which is a government-linked investment company under the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT), today has an extra 3.2 million doses of China-made vaccine Sinovac.

This was after the company had completed the delivery of 14.4 million doses ordered by the federal government for its National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).

"I myself had spoken to the chief executive officer (CEO) of Pharmaniaga last night, and again, I called its deputy CEO this morning just to get my facts right.

"From what I was told, Pharmaniaga has its own programme, where the company can produce Sinovac vaccines here locally through the Fill and Finish process. This is besides importing the product directly from China.

"Last month, they had to reject an offer by (the vaccine company in) China to send two million doses, because of storage issues at Pharmaniaga. And today, after they delivered 14.4 million doses to the government, they still have 3.2 million doses in their storage.

"My question is why can’t these vaccines be sold (to other parties)?" Noh said when debating a briefing by Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) on the execution of NIP.

Khairy is the science, technology and innovation minister, and minister in charge of the immunisation programme.

Noh said the government had last month released a set of standard operating procedures (SOP), which detailed the process to purchase the Covid-19 vaccine for states and private entities.

He claimed that this SOP, however, has not been followed.

"The procedures are clear, that the costs of procuring the vaccines should be borne in full by the state government or the private company, and they cannot use any allocation or fund from the federal government in doing so.

"They want to purchase on their own. And it is also on a condition that (procurement) does not interrupt the NIP.

"So now, with this excess supply, why can't it be sold? Let the states and private companies buy the vaccines," he said. - Mkini