Pharmaniaga Receives Almost Six Million Sinovac Pre-Orders From State Governments

Even though the company has met its commitment of 15 million Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses to the federal government for the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), it doesn’t mean the end of the road for Pharmaniaga when it comes to the vaccine.

You may recall that Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has recently revealed that Pharmaniaga will be selling 14 million Sinovac doses to private companies and state governments. As it turns out, the state governments are indeed interested to procure their own Sinovac supply from the company.

Its Group Managing Director, Zulkarnain Md Eusope has said that Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Sabah, Sarawak, and Selangor have already pre-ordered around six million doses. In fact, 2.5 million doses out of those orders belonged to Selangor alone.

Furthermore, Pharmaniaga has received approval from The Special Committee on COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) to deliver a portion of Selangor’s order to help speed up the vaccination process in the state. This is even though the federal government will only be announcing the guidelines, conditions, and ceiling pricing for the Sinovac vaccine next week.

Meanwhile, Zulkarnain added that several countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia are also interested to obtain the vaccine through Pharmaniaga. However, the matter is currently being discussed with Sinovac to make sure that there are no overlaps in terms of delivery.

(Source: Buletin Utama, Berita Harian. Image: Pharmaniaga, Sinovac.)