By LYDIA NATHAN / Pic BLOOMBERG

INIX Technologies Holdings Bhd is proposing to market Chinese made Covid-19 vaccines in Malaysia by registering with the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) towards that end.

In an exchange statement yesterday, Inix noted that its wholly-owned subsidiary, iNix Network Sdn Bhd, hopes to source vaccines from three suppliers, Sinovac Biotech Co Ltd, Cansino Biologics Inc and Sinopharm China National Biotech Group Co Ltd.

iNix Network needs the registration with NPRA for the distribution of the vaccine in the country as the government has mandated that only vaccines meeting MoH’s requirements will be registered and used in Malaysia.

The company is banking on Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s speeches that to improve group immunity, some 20 million to 23 million Malaysians will need to be administered Covid-19 vaccine.

For now, the government has already signed a preliminary agreement with Covax facilities, Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca plc for the procurement of the Covid-19 vaccines to secure the supply of vaccines for 40% of the population.

Putrajaya has agreed to buy 14 million doses from Sinovac which will be delivered by end-March, and is in the process of negotiating with other suppliers like Cansino and Russia’s Gamaleya National Centre to obtain a guaranteed vaccine supply for 80% of the population.

This evaluation process (on Inix submission) will be made by the product evaluation committee of NPRA and drugs control authority for approval, before the Covid-19 vaccines can be used in Malaysia.

Once approved by MoH, Inix will be able to import the vaccines and supply the same to MoH to conduct the Third Phase Clinical Trial which will be fully sponsored by Inix as its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, the company noted in its statement yesterday.

The first clinical trial is expected to involve 3,000 volunteers.

Inix has also ventured into glove-making by commissioning two additional production lines in a collaboration with L&S Gloves Sdn Bhd.

The company has taken a 10-year lease on a 0.91ha glove factory in Beranang, Selangor, with an aim to add two production lines every three months until a total of 14 lines are commissioned.

iNix Network inked a memorandum of agreement with L&S Gloves in December 2020 to acquire 51% equity interest of the latter, with an investment of RM50 million. A final deal is yet to be closed.

L&S Gloves has sufficient orders to sustain for the next two years for the planned 14 production lines, which will have a capacity of more than 110 million pieces of latex gloves monthly, Inix past filing to the exchange noted.