Malaysia's glove makers struggle to meet booming demand By AFP September 5, 2020 @ 10:00am - NSTP / FAIZ ANUAR
PARIS: With no end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic, worldwide demand for surgical gloves – as for other types of personal protective equipment – is booming, leaving manufacturers struggling to keep up.
The global PPE market – from masks, gowns and gloves, to shoes and sanitising gels – is expected to balloon from US$52 billion in 2019 to US$93 billion in 2027, according to German market data specialist, Statista.
And, like other such products that were previously predominantly the domain of specialist medical personnel, the surgical glove has become much sought after even by the general public.
US-based Allied Market Research estimates that the global disposable gloves market amounted to US$6.8 billion in 2019, and is expected to nearly triple to US$18.8 billion by 2027.
Covid-19: Malaysia's Top Glove overwhelmed by international orders Spike in demand for rubber gloves: Top Glove to the rescue Top Glove now Malaysia's second-biggest company Just as worldwide shortages of masks and disinfectant gels have pushed up the prices of those products, single-use medical gloves have become increasingly difficult and costly to come by during the health crisis.
Malaysia is the world's biggest maker of rubber gloves, accounting for around 60 per cent of global exports.
And according to the Malaysian manufacturers' association MARGMA, worldwide demand is projected to rise from 296 billion in 2019 to 330 billion this year.
Given the surge, the industry is forecasting a shortage that is expected to last well into next year, MARGMA said.
Malaysian manufacturer Top Glove, which describes itself as the world's biggest producer of rubber gloves, said it is seeing orders for 11-12 billion a month, compared with 4.5 billion prior to the pandemic.
As a result, customers must now wait nearly 600 days for their orders to be filled, compared with a normal delivery time of 30-40 days, said chief executive, Lim Wee Chai.
In addition, with raw materials in short supply, production costs are also rising.
"The shortage of raw material for our nitrile gloves and the disruption to the supply or production of other material such as packaging materials due to the global lockdown, has caused an increase in the production cost," said Top Glove.
That would be passed on to customers in the form of higher prices.
While health experts argue that regular handwashing offers better protection against Covid-19 than gloves, the current boom for PPE is expected to pose another problem further down the line.
Environmental campaigners are concerned that millions of tonnes of single-use gloves will end up polluting the oceans.
Dr Altice highlighted three important requirements for Covid-19 vaccines — safety, efficacy and the manufacturing process.
The produced vaccine should be safe and work well without causing side effects. He also explained the three important phases in Covid-19 vaccine development process.
“The phases are Phase One, which is safety. This like the Moderna vaccine — about 10 patients or so, where we find the lowest dose required to produce the maximum antibody, that is immune response in healthy volunteers.
Phase Two involves patients in the hundreds and we ask the question how well is that vaccine working and those who need it.
“And then Phase Three is the classic randomised control trial that will take thousands of patients and it really asks the question for those who get exposed, is there a reduction in the likelihood of getting infected and how much of a reduction is there,” said Dr Altice at the talk titled “#VirtualTalk UM and Yale: The Race to Covid’s End”.
He also mentioned that a wide range of tests should be done involving the elderly and children to study the effectiveness of a vaccine to develop immunity against the virus that causes Covid-19, as well as to avoid unintended consequences.
“There are some really important issues because this disease impacts more negatively those individuals who are older and who have immune compromised,” he said.
Furthermore, Dr Altice raised storage problems that will probably emerge in Covid-19 vaccination.
Usually, most vaccines for common conditions can be stored in refrigerators at home here. Those vaccines are easier to be delivered all over the world, including equatorial regions where Malaysia is located. But Covid-19 belongs to the family of single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses.
Unlike conventional vaccines, RNA vaccines should be stored at very low temperatures, said Dr Altice.
“The problem is that our experience with most RNA vaccines, which this will be most likely, have to be stored at incredibly low levels minus 80 degrees, which are typically research freezers, and it will be inaccessible for much of the world,” he said.
“So that’s a major sort of issue and then of course I would say we have to really think about prioritising who gets it.
“The places that will be most devastated will be the low and middle-income countries where there’s a lack of hospital beds and a lack of medical infrastructure to take care of people who get sick.”
He stressed that the producer of vaccines and cost are crucial factors to ensure the vaccine reaches those who really need it.
Sinopharm vaccine from China arrives in Peru for clinical trial Updated 2020.09.05 13:39 GMT+8
A coronavirus vaccine candidate from the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm arrived in Lima this Wednesday for the all-important Phase Three clinical trial.
Sinopharm's vaccine testing samples arrive in Peru. Indonesia begins last phase of vaccine clinical trials.
As early in July, emergency used of Sinopharma vaccine for Sinopharmas' laboratory workers n other vaccines are involved like CanSino n Sinovac.
Sinopharma vaccine will finish its phase 3 trials by year end. And approved by China health authority.
Titijaya should at least issue a press statement regarding their involvement with Sinopharm and their future plans if a vaccine from Sinopharm is successfully produced. At least this could convince their investors.
yanz77 Titijaya should at least issue a press statement regarding their involvement with Sinopharm and their future plans if a vaccine from Sinopharm is successfully produced. At least this could convince their investors. 06/09/2020 2:15 PM
If announce tonight... tomorrow limit up..n three days limit up...u have chance to buy at what Price...◉‿◉
So far from the ministers’ communication, although they didn’t specifically mention Sinopharm, but from their statements, we can make calculated guess that they are referring to Sinopharm’s vaccine, which are currently in phase III trials over so many countries covering over 50k people and also different races.
This show Sinopharm vaccines once obtained approval, will be suitable for the world, not just one or two races, like the western countries ones.
Now we’re into “old school” inactivated vaccines that are in phase 3 trials. Clinical trial data hasn’t been published here yet. I’ve seen BBIBP-CorV discussed as 1 or 2 vaccines, so I could be wrong here: I’m assuming it’s 2.
Sinopharm is state-run, with a corporate subsidiary, the China National Biotec Group (CNBG). BBIBP-CorV vaccine(s) has/have been through a phase 1/2 trial, with 1,120 people.
CNBG posted some interim results on their website in June, which reports positive antibody responses, but no detail on adverse effects. It has reportedly been said that adverse effects will be lower than other vaccines – which would not be surprising for inactivated vaccine.
The phase 3 trial is underway in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). UAE was reporting about 500 people or so with new confirmed Covid-19 a day in June, according to Wikipedia. It’s a country of about 10 million people. So there’s some virus circulating.
If I’m understanding the trial registry entry properly, this will surely be the first phase 3 trial with interim results. The trial measures effectiveness in protecting against infection just 14 days after the 2-injection vaccination course is completed.
Its for 15,000 adults with no upper age limit, with 2 groups of 5,000 people for each vaccine and a 5,000-person placebo group. (It’s not specified what each of the 2 groups are, but it’s why I’m assuming there are 2 vaccines.)
China can reportedly produce 200 million or more doses of this vaccine a year, including using a new production facility that was scheduled for completion at the end of July.
A production deal has also been reported between UAE/China and Indonesia.
Those countries are Muslim majority and it's Halal. Malaysia probably will follow as per normal.
Indonesia has secured a commitment to be sent 20-30 million doses of the potential vaccine by the end of this year, some 80-130 million doses in first quarter of next year and 210 million doses for the remainder of 2021, she said.
“Therefore, if we talk about numbers, we have secured 290 million to 340 million for 2021,” she told reporters in a virtual briefing on Monday.
The first of the deals were secured when the two ministers visited China’s resort city Sanya on Hainan Island on Thursday, while the rest were negotiated with UAE officials in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
In Sanya, Retno and Erick oversaw two deals between state-owned pharmaceuticals firm Bio Farma and China’s Sinovac Biotech that would give Indonesia the equivalent of 50 million doses of the potential vaccine from November to March and priority access for the rest of 2021.
Read also: Government, Bio Farma secure vaccine bulk supply from China's Sinovac
It will be supplied in the form of vaccine bulk, an aqueous form of the purified antigens, or vaccine, provided in a large container from which individual vials are filled.
Indonesia is already cooperating with Sinovac in the phase three clinical trial of the vaccine candidate, with tests being carried out on 1,620 volunteers in Bandung, West Java, since earlier this month.
The government has also looked into partnerships with two other Chinese drug manufacturers, SINOPHARM and CanSino Biologics.
Correct me if I'm wrong. From my reading, the news that about Titijaya and Sinopharm was only in April 2020 where it only linked Titijaya with Sinopharm in trading and distribution of medical and hospital equipment, as well as medical industry-related real estate only but not vaccines.
Yes Yanz77. You can’t find the word ‘vaccine‘ in the agreement because there is no vaccine available now. How to include something which is not approved in a formal agreement? But you can see broader term such as medical product. Vaccine is a type of medical product.
From the agreement, you can read about Titijaya will make a separate announcement pertaining to their partnership with Sinopharm when the time is right. Hence, it’s an educated guess that vaccine will be included in the agreement once it’s final approved.
You all have to believe Titijaya will be able to loop in Sinopharm vaccine in the agreement once the vaccine receive approval
Now no news is actually good coz we can buy at cheap prices
I notice there is a ‘force’ trying to press down the price and we should be grateful! They sell cheap so we continue to buy cheap. Let’s see how much more they sell to us, we will eat and absorb all of them.
Titijaya is the biggest hidden gem on vaccine! Have faith in Sinopharm and we hope that Sinopharm vaccine will receive the final approval soon.
Four of the world's eight vaccines that are in the third phase of trials are from China. For three groups of participants who respectively took two shots of low, medium and high-dose CoronaVac, over 90% of them experienced significant increase in antibody levels, while the levels were slightly lower than those seen in younger subjects but in line with expectation, Liu said in a statement.
New IPO: Building management systems (BMS), solar thermal systems and energy-saving services provider, Solar District Cooling Bhd aims to list on the Ace Market!
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
MacamYes
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Posted by MacamYes > 2020-09-03 15:08 | Report Abuse
market so weak , every stocks also down , hopefully market rebounding soon, then titijaya will be first to fly