Pharmaniaga puts faith in China’s CoronaVac vaccine; supplies 12m doses to MOH

PHARMANIAGA Bhd will supply 12 million doses of CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine to the Ministry of Health (MOH) following the signing of an agreement by both parties today.

Pharmaniaga has recently inked a deal with CoronaVac’s developer, Sinovac Lifesciences Co Ltd (Sinovac) of China to obtain the bulk supply of the vaccine which will be manufactured fill and finish at its high-tech plant.

The deal also includes the vaccine technology transfer to the company.

“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 group managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope pointed out.

“Our wholly owned subsidiary company, Pharmaniaga LifesSience Sdn Bhd (PLS) will manufacture fill and finish CoronaVac at its European Union (EU) Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-certified small volume injectable plant which has been repurposed for this project.”

Pharmaniaga expects to receive the first bulk supply of CoronaVac from Sinovac in February.

“Meanwhile, the logistics and distribution of CoronaVac will be carried out by Pharmaniaga Logistics Sdn Bhd (PLSB) which has 26 years’ experience in managing vaccine distribution and has well-established infrastructure to support the needs.

“In view of the unprecedented situation, we have beefed up the security aspect of the logistics of the vaccine,” noted Zulkarnain.

He added Pharmaniaga is very pleased with Sinovac’s preliminary results from its Phase 3 clinical trial conducted on general population in Turkey which had shown CoronaVac’s efficacy at 91.25%.

The study in that country makes the vaccine’s efficacy comparable to all other manufacturers.

Once CoronaVac gets registered with National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA), PLS will be the product registration holder and exclusive distributor, authorised by Sinovac for Malaysian market of finished products both locally manufactured or imported from China for the Government and private sector. – Jan 26, 2021

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