Ucrest and Sputnik
OF all the locally-listed firms getting involved in the Covid-19 vaccine, Ucrest Bhd
’s efforts do stand out.
This company, with a market capitalisation of RM236mil and a patchy profit track record, has inked a deal to manage the contract manufacturing for the Sputnik V vaccine.
On April 9, Ucrest said it had inked an MoU with Russian Direct Investment Fund or RDIF to manage contract manufacturing in Asia for the latter, in order to produce Sputnik V. RFID is a government entity responsible for the commercialisation of Sputnik V. However, what Ucrest has not revealed is the reason why RFID has handpicked Ucrest for this role.
After all, Ucrest is not a manufacturer of any drugs let alone vaccines, so one wonders what skill sets it has in order to be able to play the role of identifying and managing contract manufacturers for a vaccine.
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