KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 8): Duopharma Biotech Bhd has denied appointing any party including Bintai Kinden Corp Bhd's unit Bintai Healthcare Sdn Bhd as a distributor of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine in Malaysia.

In a bourse filing, the pharmaceutical company said it was referring to a report concerning Bintai Healthcare partnering with the company to distribute the vaccine in the country.

"We wish to inform that as at to date, neither the company, Duopharma (M) Sdn Bhd, nor any of the company's subsidiaries has appointed 'Bintai Healthcare' or any other party as distributor for the distribution of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine in Malaysia.

"As part of the Duopharma Biotech group's continuing commitment to good corporate governance and compliance with the laws of Malaysia, we also wish to advise that the Duopharma Biotech group will adhere to any applicable standard operating procedures as may be issued by the government of Malaysia in relation to supply of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine to the private sector," said Duopharma.

Duopharma added that applications for registration of pharmaceutical products with the Drug Control Authority as well as sales and distribution of pharmaceutical products are in the ordinary course of the group's business.

To recap, Duopharma was granted conditional registration approval by the Drug Control Authority on July 16 for Sinopharm's COVILO Covid-19 vaccine.

Yesterday, Bintai Kinden said in a statement that its unit Bintai Healthcare had inked a deal with NGT Solutions (M) Sdn Bhd, which it claimed was an appointed healthcare organiser of Duopharma, to jointly distribute Sinopharm's Covid-19 vaccine to the private sector in Malaysia.

Bintai Kinden executive director Noor Azri Noor Azerai said the company aimed to achieve a sales forecast of vaccination for 5,000 persons in the first three months once the vaccine was made available to the private sector.

Duopharma's share price closed down nine sen or 4.59% to RM1.87, for a market capitalisation of RM1.76 billion.

Bintai Kinden shares fell 0.5 sen or 0.98% to settle at 50.5 sen, valuing it at RM193 million.