Use of Sinovac vaccine bottled by Pharmaniaga begins

PUTRAJAYA: A total of 290,480 vials of Covid-19 Sinovac vaccine, bottled by Pharmaniaga Bhd (Pharmaniaga), are to be used at vaccination centres nationwide starting yesterday, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said.

It is the first batch delivered by the company to the Health Ministry, he said. “We are now in the second phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme. We received 400,000 doses of Covid-19 Sinovac vaccine supply directly from Beijing, China.

“The remaining vials from the first batch will also be used this month,” he told a media conference after the handover ceremony of the vaccine.

In February, Pharmaniaga Bhd’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Pharmaniaga Lifescience Sdn Bhd (PLS) received 200 litres or the equivalent of 300,000 doses of the first batch of the Sinovac vaccine in bulk for the manufacturing validation process.

This was a historic moment for Malaysia and an equally important one for the company in its efforts to pioneer vaccine production and as the first vaccine factory to undertake the “fill and finish” process in Malaysia.

To ensure sufficient supply of vaccines, Adham said the government is constantly in talks with the manufacturers of AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines and expects to receive 3.97 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech between April and June.

Meanwhile, Pharmaniaga Group managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope said to date, PLS had submitted the first four batches for validation and quality control purposes by Good Manufacturing Practices and the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency.

Zulkarnain said fill and finish vaccine production is now at its maximum level and PLS is capable of producing two million doses of vaccine a month.