KUALA LUMPUR (April 6): Permaju Industries Bhd is looking into bottling and distributing a Hong Kong firm’s sanitiser product for the Southeast Asian market.

The product is one of the very few solutions in the world that have successfully been tested to work against the Covid-19 virus, Permaju said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today. 

The group said its wholly-owned subsidiary Team Japs Sdn Bhd has entered into a collaboration agreement with Pentaweft Biotech Ltd to study the feasibility of making and distributing the “Penaclo solution” in Southeast Asian countries. 

The countries are Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. 

The first batch of the Penaclo solution will be aimed at the personal precautionary market. The parties will then develop other Penaclo solutions aimed at sanitising high-risk areas such as hospitals, offices, restaurants, schools and public transport.

“With over one million people now infected with the global pandemic, and the rest of the world panicking, the quick roll-out of this solution is key to alleviating and containing the further spread of the virus,” Permaju said in a separate statement. 

Pentaweft Biotech is the sales and manufacturing arm of the Pentaweft group of companies that is engaged in the biotechnology industry and focuses on the development and commercialisation of various medical products and medicines.

Pentaweft said the Penaclo solution is in the process of patenting in China and other countries. It claimed that the solution has been tested by a leading key respiratory disease research institute in China and found to be effective in eradicating over 99.95% of the Covid-19 virus within the first 30 seconds of application. 

It added that the Penaclo solution is shown to have a low toxicity rate and is safe for use on Vero E6 cells. 

"We are planning to launch a series of Penaclo sanitiser products for personal and institutional applications," Pentaweft said.

Permaju Industries’ share price closed three sen or 3.64% lower at 79.5 sen, valuing the group at RM148.87 million.