KUALA LUMPUR (May 23): Pharmaniaga Bhd is working with the federal government only on Covid-19 vaccine supply "at the moment", said group managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope.
According to him, the company has not dealt directly with state governments on vaccine supply, so far.
"At the moment we are still waiting for the federal government's approval to supply to any state. So for now we are working with them (federal government) only," said Zulkarnain.
Zulkarnain was speaking at a virtual press conference in conjunction with Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob's visit to the company's wholly-owned subsidiary Pharmaniaga LifeScience Sdn Bhd's vaccine manufacturing facilities today.
The minister revealed that Pharmaniaga will supply 3.8 million Sinovac vaccine doses from its facilities by the end of next month.
On top of that, the government will also get 10.4 million doses of Sinovac vaccine from China by end-August.
Under the terms of agreement between the federal government and Pharmaniaga, according to Coordinating Minister for National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin, the supply of vaccine doses ordered by the federal government will be prioritised before any vaccine can be distributed to any other parties including state governments, industry players and private hospitals.
Pharmaniaga's Zulkarnain also told the media that Pharmaniaga is seeking to reach an output of four million doses per month as early as August.
He said the increase of production will be able to start once they get relevant reports from their Chinese counterparts. "Once the report is submitted and approved, we can move towards increasing production," he said.
To recap, Pharmaniaga in January signed an agreement with Sinovac Life to purchase 14 million doses of ready-to-fill Covid-19 vaccine and to manufacture the vaccine doses domestically.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Health (MoH) signed term sheet agreements with Pharmaniaga's subsidiary Pharmaniaga LifeScience for the procurement of 12 million doses of Sinovac's Covid-19 vaccine.
Pharmaniaga is one of the two pharmaceutical companies that have signed an agreement with the MoH for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccine doses. The other company is Duopharma Biotech Bhd, which will be supplying 6.4 million doses of Russian-developed "Sputnik V" Covid-19 vaccine.