Solution Group Berhad (SGB) through its wholly owned subsidiary, Solution Biologics Sdn. Bhd. (SOLBIO) has signed a supply agreement of 3.5 million doses of Convidicea vaccine with the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MoH).
Convidicea, a recombinant novel Coronavirus vaccine, was jointly developed by CanSino Biologics Inc. (CanSino) and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology under the Academy of Military Medical Sciences.
Additionally, CanSino has authorised SOLBIO and granted it the exclusive right to register, manufacture and commercialise the vaccine in Malaysia.
“SOLBIO is in the process of setting up a fill and finish (F&F) facility to produce the vaccine in Malaysia. We will also be the regional F&F hub for CanSino to supply the vaccine to Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Brunei,” SGB’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mohd Nazlee Bin Kamal said.
SGB has received the approval from the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) for the F&F facility design plan and layout in December 2020 as well.
The facility will be located at Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil and to be operational by the second quarter of 2021. The F&F facility will be able to produce up to three million vials of vaccines per month.
“Our production capacity of 36 million vials per year would enable us to meet further demand from Malaysia, and ASEAN as soon as we get the approval from the NPRA.
We would also be able to channel the distribution to private sectors as soon as permission to distribute to medical facilities is granted as well,” Mohd Nazlee concluded.
Meanwhile, Malaysia will receive 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines starting from June.
The Coordinating Minister for Covid-19 Immunisation, Khairy Jamaluddin said that he received the delivery schedule from AstraZeneca Malaysia and the vaccine will be produced at an AstraZeneca factory in Thailand.
“I have confirmation that this is a direct procurement for the AstraZeneca vaccine from AstraZeneca themselves,” he added.
As of April 1, according to the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF), Malaysia has vaccinated 698,203 people.
Labuan is the only state to date to have completed administering the first Covid-19 vaccine dose for all 2,390 frontliners, ahead of schedule and has started administering the second dose since March 20.
