KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18): Pharmaniaga Bhd confirms today that it has secured a five-year extension for the provision of logistics and distribution services to the Ministry of Health, to end on Dec 31, 2024.

It has also gained a 25-month interim extension for the provision of medicines and medical supplies to MoH facilities, starting Dec 1 this year, till Dec 31, 2021.

“Pharmaniaga is thankful to the Government for continuing to place their trust in us and for their recognition of our performance in delivering services for the benefit of the rakyat in line with our motto, Passion for Patients.

“Moving forward, we remain focused on providing high standards of service and strong operational efficiency to ensure that all Key Performance Indicators are met. In tandem, we are committed to upholding good corporate governance standards and transparent practices guided by our MS ISO 37001 Anti Bribery Management System,” said Pharmaniaga managing director Datuk Farshila Emran in a statement.

On Nov 9, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad announced the 25-month interim extension, saying it was to allow the MoH to make the necessary preparations to undertake the services which were done previously by Pharmaniaga, whose concession was said to be a monopoly. "If the Health Ministry is able to take over the role of Pharmaniaga in less than 25 months, then an open tender for procurement of medicines will be initiated early," he reportedly said.

Dzulkefy also announced that the government will give the five-year contract for logistics and distributions to Pharmaniaga based on its capabilities, performance and what the company has built till now. But in that five years, the government will build capacity through vendor development programmes so that it could open tenders for medicine logistics concessions.

Prior to that, Dr Dzulkefly announced there would be no more concessionaires for logistics and distribution (L&D) services for medical supplies, and that an open tender system would be introduced instead.

The minister’s words, reported on Oct 31, sent Pharmaniaga’s shares tumbling 16.8% in two days to close at RM2.08 on Nov 1. The stock, which has seen some recovery since, closed unchanged at RM2.27 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM593 million. The stock is still down near 16% from a year ago.