KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian pharmaceutical group Pharmaniaga has signed an agreement with China's Sinovac to purchase ready-to-fill COVID-19 vaccines and later to manufacture the vaccine domestically, it said on Tuesday.

Pharmaniaga said in a filing to the bourse that the company will carry out a fill-and-finish process of the vaccine in Malaysia, and will subsequently enter into local manufacturing, under license from Sinovac for its technology and know-how.

"This will also help Pharmaniaga in long-term partnerships, including technology transfer to grow the sector in Malaysia," the company said.

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Malaysia has been in talks to secure a total of 23.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac and another Chinese manufacturer CanSino Biologics, and from Russia's Gamaleya Institute, the maker of the Sputnik V vaccine.

The Southeast Asian nation has also procured coronavirus vaccines from US and German drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as British-Swedish biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.

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