It's a scam, Khairy says about 'offer' to donate two million vaccine doses to Penang

PETALING JAYA: The offer by a "private company" to sponsor two million doses of Sinovac vaccine to the Penang government is bogus, claims Khairy Jamaluddin.

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister said he examined a copy of the letter received by Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow detailing the offer.

The letter, he said, was from a man a certain Yong Chee Kong who claimed to be a Malaysian working for Xintai Development Enterprise, which is allegedly based in Hong Kong.

The man claimed he was willing to pay a US$2mil deposit and had been in touch with Sinovac Biotech international sales head Coco Chang.

Khairy said after investigating further, there was no such application made to Sinovac Biotech in China and Coco Chang confirmed that she had not been in contact with anyone about the matter.

A search for the company Xintai, he added, also yielded no results.

"We found that this offer is not genuine. It is a scam and it is bogus," he said in a press conference on Wednesday (May 19).

On Tuesday (May 18), Chow said the Health Ministry had declined to approve the state government's request for a private company to sponsor two million vaccine doses from China.

Later that day, Khairy clarified that states were allowed to buy their own vaccines, as long as the vaccines are first approved by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).