KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Putrajaya has identified two pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities that will be tasked to “fill and finish” Covid-19 vaccines once a cure has been found.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin told reporters at Parliament today that the manufacturing facilities belong to Pharmaniaga and Duopharma Biotech Berhad.
“The two companies have told the government that they are willing to take stock production and prioritise it for the Covid-19 vaccine when it is available. This is how the private sector is working with us to ensure that the vaccine will quickly reach the people.
“If we have the capacity, we will also offer our fill-and-finish service to other countries. We are not developing our own vaccine and we have been told that the bottleneck when it comes to vaccine distribution is at the fill-and-finish level.
“We will purchase the vaccine in bulk, in liquid form before it is dispersed into its respective vials before distribution,” said Khairy.
He said the government is still looking at vaccine research and trials being conducted in China, the United States and the United Kingdom.
He said the government has not decided on which vaccine to purchase as even the ones in China is still undergoing clinical trials.
Khairy added that once the Health Ministry has identified the best vaccine, the government will purchase it and it will be his ministry’s responsibility to have it packaged.
After it has been bottled, the Health Ministry will then begin distribution to the general public.
