KUALA LUMPUR (June 1): Duopharma Biotech Bhd said today it had signed an agreement with the government to supply 6.4 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to Malaysia.

The company said in a statement that through its wholly-owned subsidiary Duopharma (M) Sdn Bhd (DMSB), it concluded the execution of separate definitive supply agreements with the Malaysian government (represented by the Ministry of Health [MoH]) and a subsidiary of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for the supply.

This followed the announcement made on Jan 26 of the signing by DMSB of separate term sheets with the government and RDIF.

The supply of the vaccine is subject to the fulfilment of the remaining conditions precedent under the supply agreements, namely the approval of the vaccine by the Drug Control Authority of Malaysia, as well as other terms and conditions of supply, it said.

According to the statement, Sputnik V, a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Russia's Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, has since been successfully registered in 68 countries across North and South America, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Three of the countries that have registered Sputnik V — Hungary, Slovakia and Argentina — are members of the European Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme.

Cited peer-reviewed results of the second interim analysis, Phase III published by The Lancet, one of the world’s oldest and most respected medical journals, it said, “Sputnik V’s efficacy has been confirmed at 91.6%."

Furthermore, it is one of the only three vaccines in the world with an efficacy rating of over 90%, and no serious adverse events related to the vaccine were recorded, it said.  

Citing the RDIF, it noted, 20 million people have 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, it said.

The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vector-based vaccines had been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades, it added.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has presented all Malaysians with extraordinary challenges, which we can only overcome through immediate collaboration on many fronts. Duopharma Biotech is fully committed and proud to be part of our nation's inoculation programme," said Duopharma Biotech managing director Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar.

Duopharma Biotech also said the supply agreements are expected to contribute positively to the group’s future earnings and earnings per share (EPS) for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2021 (FY21).

At 2.56pm, Duopharma Biotech had fallen three sen or 0.91% to RM3.27, valuing the group at RM2.33 billion.