Pharmaniaga seals deal with govt to supply 12mil doses of Sinovac vaccine

 

Pharmaniaga will manufacture, fill and finish CoronaVac as well as handle the logistics and distribution of the vaccine to all government health facilities.

PETALING JAYA: Pharmaniaga Berhad will supply the government with 12 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Lifesciences Co Ltd, the company has announced.

In a statement, Pharmaniaga said it signed an agreement with the health ministry today.

It was reported on Jan 12 that Pharmaniaga had signed a deal to purchase ready-to-fill Covid-19 vaccines, called CoronaVac, from Sinovac, with the added bonus of being able to manufacture the vaccine domestically.

“We 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,” Pharmaniaga’s group managing director Zulkarnain Md Eusope said today.

Zulkarnain said they are very confident over the safety, efficacy, and quality of the vaccine.

CoronaVac has been registered and approved for emergency use in China, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.

He said once the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) has approved the use of the vaccine, it could be available by the end of March or early April.

In another development on the vaccine front today, the Russian embassy said that the Russian Direct Investment Fund signed a deal to supply the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to Malaysia.

To date, the Sputnik V vaccine has been approved by several countries, including Argentina, Belarus, and Serbia.

The government has also procured some 25 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer in collaboration with Germany’s BioNTech. - FMT