PETALING JAYA: Pharmaniaga Bhd has assured its suppliers that unexpected delays in payments will be resolved soon.
In a statement today, the group said that it would continue to honour its obligations.
“As a responsible GLC, Pharmaniaga has never defaulted on any of its obligations to the financial institutions, but the group acknowledges the recent unexpected delays in payments to its suppliers and assures the situation will be normalised soon.
“Most of the obligations have since been cleared, and the group will continue to honour all obligations to ensure patients’ access to medicine remains uninterrupted and continues to be intact,” it said in a statement today.
Last week, the main association representing pharmaceutical companies in Malaysia sounded the alarm over the group’s financial woes, saying it could affect patients’ access to medicines if not quickly resolved.
Pharmaceutical Association of Malaysia executive director Chan Li Jin said Pharmaniaga’s Practice Note 17 (PN17) classification for financially distressed companies had led to “uncertainty and anxiety” among medicine suppliers.
Chan said Pharmaniaga’s financial situation had created unease over its ability to pay pharmaceutical companies for their medicines despite the company’s assurances.
On Feb 27, Pharmaniaga announced that it had fallen under the PN17 classification after it recorded its largest quarterly net loss of RM664.39 million in the fourth quarter ending Dec 31, 2022.
The pharmaceutical group also said it had taken a RM552.3 million impairment on unsold Covid-19 vaccines and also wrote down the goodwill of its Indonesian manufacturing cash-generating units of RM50.3 million.
It also denied that the health ministry had over relied on the group as a pharmaceutical logistics and distribution services provider.
“Contrary to the claims, the ministry spent approximately 35% of its pharmaceutical spending via Pharmaniaga, with the group’s role limited to managing the logistics and distribution of the products, as well as holding the drug stockpile in the tune of RM400 million as of Dec 31, 2022.
“The selection of suppliers, products and prices is all determined by the health ministry after it concludes an open tender exercise.”
Pharmaniaga is responsible for obtaining more than a third, or over 700 of the government’s branded and generic drug supply, as well as for the logistics and distribution of these medicines. It served 2,000 government health facilities nationwide. - FMT
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