Solution Group to supply CanSino vaccine in Malaysia

 

Solution Group Bhd’s (SGB) wholly-owned subsidiary Solution Biologics Sdn Bhd (Solbio) has signed a finished product and a bulk product agreement today with CanSino Biologics Inc for the supply of the Recombinant Ad5-nCoV vaccine for use against Covid-19.

In a statement, the group said the finished product agreement allows Solbio to purchase and CanSino to supply the finish product vaccine for emergency use in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the bulk agreement will see CanSino supply the active pharmaceutical ingredients for the fill and finish (F&F) to Solbio and both agreements come with a period of ten years with immediate effect, it said.

SGB deputy group managing director Mohd Nazlee Kamal said the first shipment of the finished doses will be delivered by August and the subsequent batches are also on the schedule.

“The CanSino vaccine being a single-dose vaccine makes it more efficient to administer, especially in rural and difficult-to-reach areas, which makes for huge savings in terms of logistics and other resources needed to be deployed for the nationwide vaccination programme,” he said.

Both agreements allow Solbio to fulfil its obligation to supply 3.5 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to the Health Ministry and accepting additional orders from the ministry, state governments, private sector and other Asean countries.

In addition, Solbio would have the capacity to supply booster shots, should it be required for those who have been fully inoculated with other Covid-19 vaccines.

“With the supply agreement, we are confident to fulfil more than the government’s current requirement and we believe the supply of the vaccine known as Convidecia will help to boost the vaccination rate in Malaysia sharply to meet the government’s accelerated target of immunising the country’s entire population against Covid-19 by October 2021,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the bulk product agreement will enable Solbio to do the F&F and supply in Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, and Singapore.

CanSino has also authorised Solbio to develop the business in these countries for the vaccine through working with respective local partners, authorities, and regulatory bodies.

“Our primary focus is to fulfil the Health Ministry supply, which we have signed in early April this year and expect to complete by October 2021,” Nazlee said.

Meanwhile, SGB is planning to expand the vaccine distribution to other Asean countries.

It is in talks with the governments of Thailand and the Philippines for the vaccine supply and is expecting emergency use approval by August where we target to supply five to 10 million doses to each country.

SGB also is on track with the set-up of the F&F facility to produce the Covid-19 vaccine in Malaysia and the F&F facility at Technology Park Malaysia will start production next month which can produce up to three million doses per month.

“We are arranging for good manufacturing practices (GMP) audit by National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) in August and once GMP certification is obtained, we can move full steam ahead in the production of the vaccine,” he added.

Solbio received conditional approval of the Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use from Malaysia’s Drug Control Authority in June 2021 and the vaccine has also been approved for emergency use in China, Chile, Mexico, Pakistan, Hungary, Ecuador and Argentina.

- Bernama