KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 21): Pharmaniaga Bhd, the country's largest listed integrated pharmaceutical group, remains focused on establishing its presence in the international market and continues to be steadfast in maintaining portfolio resilience, as well as preserving liquidity to ensure business sustainability.

Pharmaniaga managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope said the group plans to expand its footprint by supplying pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products across Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

"The group aims to strategise business expansion in the international market moving forward. We have initiated this by exporting 30,000 doses of our Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to Myanmar and currently negotiating with other countries in this region, as well as some parts of African nations. We hope to conclude these deals by the first half of the year," he said in a statement after the virtual media briefing to announce Pharmaniaga's fourth-quarter and full-year financial performance for 2021.

Zulkarnain said leveraging the group's expertise as Malaysia's leading technically viable pharmaceutical company, which includes almost 300 subject matter experts in various disciplines, comprising pharmacists, chemists, regulatory affairs and clinical affairs specialists, the group is strengthening its capability in vaccine development and manufacturing.

"Currently, we are partnering with several renowned companies, such as the Serum Institute of India, SK Bioscience (South Korea), Sinovac (China) and BioNet-Asia (Thailand).

"We shall also strengthen our regulatory affairs division by setting up a new scientific advisory group consisting of world-renowned scientists, and their names will be announced soon,” he said.

He added that the group will continue to grow its business by registering more products in ASEAN, Africa and Europe.

“We have more than 320 approved products that we currently manufacture at our plants, and when these products are registered in those countries, they can be exported. We foresee this effort will be achieved in two to three years, and will be carried out by working closely with established international partners in those regions," he said.

For the full year ended Dec 31, 2021 (FY21), the group posted a record profit after taxation (PAT) of RM172 million, increasing by over sixfold from RM26 million for the preceding year. The improved bottom line came on the back of a 77% surge in revenue to RM4.8 billion from RM2.7 billion for FY20.

It attributed the surge largely to the supply of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to the Ministry of Health and the private sector, followed by higher contributions from the group's concession, non-concession and Indonesian operations.

For the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2021 (4QFY21), the group's revenue rose 12% to RM712 million from RM635 million a year ago mainly due to growth across the concession, non-concession and Indonesian businesses. In tandem with the stronger top line, the group's PAT increased to RM85 million, a significant turnaround from a net loss of RM7 million for 4QFY20.

At the noon break on Monday (Feb 21), shares in Pharmaniaga were 1.5 sen or 1.87% higher at 83.5 sen, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM1.09 billion.