THE Health Ministry today inked a term sheet agreement with two vaccine suppliers, Pharmaniaga Bhd’s subsidiary and Duopharma (M) Sdn Bhd for the procurement of 18.4 million doses of vaccine.

Pharmaniaga’s subsidiary Pharmaniaga Lifescience Sdn Bhd (PLS) will supply 12 million doses of CoronaVac, produced by China-based Sinovac Life Science Co Ltd. 

The ministry said in a statement this will be sufficient to immunise six million people or 18.75% of the population.

Duopharma, on the other hand, will supply 6.4 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine produced by Russia-based Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Russia.

“The vaccine is expected to be supplied in phases from the end of March,” MoH said.

Sputnik V will be enough to vaccinate 3.2 million people, or 10% of the population.

Both vaccines will be administered in two doses to adults aged 18 and above. 

For CoronaVac, the second dose will be administered after two weeks, while the second dose of Sputnik V will be given after an interval of 21 days.

“The supply of both vaccines will begin after the approval of the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the Drug Control Authority,” the ministry said.

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba signed the agreement on behalf of the government while Pharmaniaga was represented by its managing director, Zulkarnain Md Eusope and Duopharma Biotech Bhd’s Group managing director Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar, represented the company.

MoH said the procurement is in line with the national immunisation programme, which is in the final stage of approval.

Meanwhile, Pharmaniaga said in a separate statement the group signed a deal with CoronaVac’s developer, Sinovac Lifesciences Co Ltd (Sinovac) of China to obtain the bulk supply of the vaccine.

It will then carry out the fill and finish process at its high-tech plant. The deal also includes the vaccine technology transfer.

Additionally, PLS will also handle the logistics and distribution of the vaccine to the government-designated hospitals, clinics and other facilities.

“We expect to receive the first bulk supply of CoronaVac from Sinovac next month,” Zulkarnain said.

“Meanwhile, the logistics and distribution of CoronaVac will be carried out by Pharmaniaga Logistics Sdn Bhd, 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,” he added.

He said the company is very pleased with preliminary results from the phase 3 clinical trial of Sinovac’s vaccine in Turkey, which has shown the vaccine is 91.25% effective.

Putrajaya previously inked vaccine deals with Pfizer Inc, AstraZeneca and is part of the Covax facility. The three deals will supply enough vaccines to immunise 40% of the population. – January 26, 2021.