Photo taken on Jan. 6, 2021 shows COVID-19 vaccines at a packaging plant of Sinovac Research and Development Co., Ltd. in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)

 
The Malaysian government signed a deal on Tuesday to procure 12 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac.

The vaccines would be supplied through Malaysia's leading pharmaceutical company Pharmaniaga following the signing of an agreement between the company and Malaysia's Health Ministry, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The 12 million doses will cover six million people or 18.75 percent of Malaysia's total population, as part of its immunization program, said the statement.

Sinovac's vaccines are expected to be supplied to Malaysia in stages from April after obtaining approval from Malaysia's National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) and Drug Control Authority (DCA), it added.

Earlier this month, Pharmaniaga signed a partnership with Sinovac for the supply of the latter's COVID-19 vaccines to Malaysia, involving a fill and finish process of the vaccines by Pharmaniaga.

Pharmaniaga group managing director Zulkarnain Md Eusope said in a statement on Tuesday that the company is very pleased with Sinovac's preliminary results from the phase 3 clinical trial results in several countries.

"... we are very confident that CoronaVac is safe, efficacious and of high quality for the use of Malaysians," he said.

The Pharmaniaga official added that the storage and distribution condition of this vaccine is between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius, which is a common vaccine temperature catered by Pharmaniaga's existing facilities as well as storage facilities at government hospitals and clinics.