KUALA LUMPUR (MALAYSIA) – Malaysia is preparing to purchase ready-to-fill COVID-19 vaccine after Pharmaniaga Bhd signed an agreement with China’s Sinovac . As per the agreement Pharmaniaga Bhd will also manufacture the vaccine domestically, it said on Tuesday.
Malaysia has been in talks to purchase a total of 23.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac and another Chinese manufacturer CanSino Biologics, and from Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, the maker of the Sputnik V vaccine.
Pharmaniaga said in a filing to the bourse that the company will carry out a fill-and-finish process of the vaccine in Malaysia, and will move to local manufacturing, under license from Sinovac for its technology and know-how.
“This will also help Pharmaniaga in long-term partnerships, including technology transfer to grow the sector in Malaysia,” the company said.
Malaysia has also procured vaccines from U.S. and German drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as British-Swedish biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca PLC.