KUALA LUMPUR: Pharmaniaga Bhd's plans to deliver Covid-19 vaccine when one becomes available are well underway, amid the stern storage and distribution challenge.
Managing director Datuk Zulkarnain Md Eusope said the group had been preparing the facility development plan.
Its small volume injectable plant in Puchong is about 80 per cent ready.
"In terms of capacity, logistics and distribution, Pharmaniaga is ready for bottling this vaccine. This is because we have 25 years of experience implementing, distributing and delivering vaccines to all clinics and hospitals in Malaysia.
"Storage, transportation and distribution of vaccines will be a challenge because some may need very low temperature storage. However, our equipment and storage capacity is ready to store the vaccine at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius," Zulkarnain said at the company's virtual third quarter results briefing today.
He added that Pharmaniaga had held discussions with the government and other ministries involved to make sure the process will be accordance with the set standards.
He said Pharmaniaga was expected to secure access to Covid-19 vaccine supply in the first quarter of next year.
As for now, he said the Ministry of Health (MoH) had been in contact with eight vaccine candidates and the group was ready to distribute it in the local market within two months after the vaccine was received and went through the government's final clearance.
Zulkarnain said Pharmaniaga expected to have its own halal vaccine in 2024.
He said halal vaccine project is making progress as approval had been received for the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine initiated with Serum Institute of India Private Ltd.
"We will produce our own vaccine after undergoing various preparatory programmes.
"We expect the facility in Puchong, Selangor to be the first halal vaccine facility in Malaysia," he said.
On its outlook, Zulkarnain said the group aims to grow its over-the-counter (OTC) products as it planned to expand its share in the private market segment.
He said there was a potential in the private market especially for its ethical products, which expected to grow exponentially as the company introduced and registered new pharmaceutical products yearly.
"We also expect to expand our share in the consumer market as we will launch aggressive advertising and promotion campaigns for our over-the-counter products such as Citrex, Vitamin C, Actimol, Baraka and Perozin," he added.
Pharmaniaga's net profit rose to RM1.44 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2020 (3Q20) from RM481,000 in 3Q19 on better demand for protective equipment.
However, revenue declined to RM624.8 million from RM716.85 million previously.
For the nine months of 2020 performance, the pharmaceutical company recorded a net profit of RM33.82 million, a 14 per cent increase compared with RM29.38 million last year.
This was achieved on the back of stronger contributions from the non-concession business, mainly due to higher sales of personal protective equipment in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.