KUALA LUMPUR: Duopharma Biotech Bhd's subsidiary Duopharma (M) Sdn Bhd (DMSB) has concluded the execution of separate definitive supply agreements with the Health Ministry and a subsidiary of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for the supply of 6.4 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.
In an exchange filing today, the pharmaceutical company said this followed by the announcement made on January 26 this year of the signing by DMSB of separate term sheets with the government and RDIF.
Duopharma group managing director Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar confirmed the company's state of readiness to supply the vaccine.
"The Covid-19 pandemic has presented all Malaysians with extraordinary challenges, which we can only overcome through immediate collaboration on many fronts. Duopharma is fully committed and proud to be part of our nation's inoculation programme," he said in a statement today.
Duopharma said the vaccine supply was subjected to the fulfilment of the remaining condition precedent under the supply agreements.
This includes the approval of the vaccine by the Drug Control Authority of Malaysia, as well as other terms and conditions of supply.
Sputnik V, which was developed by Russia's Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology (Gamaleya), has since been successfully registered in 68 countries across North and South America, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Three of the countries had also registered "Sputnik V" namely Hungary, Slovakia and Argentina, which are members of the European Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S).
Sputnik V's efficacy has been confirmed at 91.6 per cent, based on peer reviewed results of the second interim analysis Phase III published by the Lancet.
It added that Sputnik V was one of only three vaccines in the world with an efficacy rating of over 90 per cent, and no serious adverse events related to the vaccine were recorded.
According to RDIF, 20 million people had so far received the vaccine globally with emergency use authorisation registered in 64 countries.
In addition to providing full protection against severe cases of Covid-19, "Sputnik V" is the world's first registered vaccine based on a well-studied human adenoviral vector-based platform.
The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vector-based vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.