KUALA LUMPUR, 16 JULY: In Bursa Malaysia morning trade today, Pharmaniaga Bhd’s stock fell 15.5 sen, or 14.9 percent, to 88.5 sen, as investors weighed the impact of Malaysia’s decision to stop administering the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine on Pharmaniaga’s outlook. Pharmaniaga is the sole distributor of the China-made vaccine in Malaysia. Pharmaniaga’s stock price was 90 sen at 11:29 a.m. today, with 70 million shares traded. Pharmaniaga is worth around RM1.18 billion at 90 sen, based on the company’s 1.31 billion issued shares.
Malaysia will stop administering the Covid-19 vaccine produced by China’s SINOVAC Life Sciences Co Ltd once supplies run out, according to news reports quoting Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba and other top ministry officials. Malaysia has a sufficient number of other vaccines for its Covid-19 vaccination program, according to news reports.
According to reports, Dr. Adham stated that the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine will be the mainstay of Malaysia’s vaccination campaign in the future. “About half of the 16 million (Sinovac vaccine doses) have already been distributed, therefore the balance will be utilized to cover second doses,” he said, according to Reuters. “Those who have not yet been vaccinated will receive the Pfizer vaccine.”
On March 22, 2021, Pharmaniaga announced in a Bursa filing that its wholly-owned subsidiary Pharmaniaga Lifescience Sdn Bhd (PLSB) had entered into an agreement with the Malaysian government for the supply and distribution of 200,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed and manufactured by SINOVAC Life Sciences.
PLSB is the product registration holder and exclusive importer of the imported finished product in Malaysia, according to Pharmaniaga.
“(China-based) SINOVAC Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Sinovac Biotech Ltd, developed and manufactured the imported finished product,” Pharmaniaga stated./n
