COVID-19: CanSino vaccine ready for bigger rollout to private market as booster shot

KUALA LUMPUR – Solution Group Bhd’s (SGB) wholly-owned subsidiary Solution Biologics Sdn Bhd (Solbio) is expecting approval to sell Convidecia vaccine on the private market and administer it as a booster shot soon, reported Bernama.

Solbio is the ASEAN manufacturing partner of CanSino Biologics Inc’s single-dose Convidecia vaccine for COVID-19.

SGB deputy group managing director Datuk Dr Mohd Nazlee Kamal said as soon as the company gets approval from the Ministry of Health (MOH), SGB will be expanding the vaccine distribution to the private market such as hospitals, clinics, the corporate and manufacturing sectors in Malaysia.

“We also hope to get the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) approval for Convidecia to be used as a booster shot in November.

“Once it is approved, it will be an additional option for those who originally received a two-dose inactivated vaccine as the Jiangsu study shows that Convidecia is safe and highly efficacious as a booster,” he said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia on November 9.

Solbio has submitted data showing the efficacy of Convidecia vaccine as a booster shot to the NPRA, demonstrating that taking a Convidecia booster shot six months after the first dose showed an increase of at least eight times in antibody levels.

Mohd Nazlee said the technical working group from the Special Committee for Ensuring Access to COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) recommends the use of different vaccines to boost vaccine efficacy as practised by other countries.

“We have more than enough capacity to supply both primary and booster doses to fulfill the market demand not just for Malaysia but also the ASEAN region,” he added.

Under an agreement with MOH, Solbio is supplying 3.5 million doses of Convidecia.

To date, Solbio has completed the delivery of 2.6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Another 300,000 doses are arriving on November 12 and the balance of 600,000 doses to be delivered by December.

With the completion of the MOH contract, the sales from the private sector and the contribution from other business segments, SGB is expecting a turnover of approximately RM300 million with a profit margin of 10% to 15% for the financial year ending 2021.