Healthcare Pharma going all out
Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Ltd (HPL) will invest about Tk 220 crore ($25.68 million) to establish large-scale active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and formulation facilities to meet their growing demand in Bangladesh.
The business will produce API and formulated pharma products at the brand new manufacturing units to be established on 30 acres of land at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar (BSMSN) in Chattogram.
"We will establish the facilities to meet the neighborhood demand as import substitute and export finished products," Muhammad Halimuzzaman, deputy managing director and chief executive officer of HPL, told The Daily Star.
Beneath the project, three facilities will be set up on API, finished products and biotech and its own formulation and around 900 jobs will be created.
Halimuzzaman said the business would install European equipment at the facilities to make sure manufacturing of high-quality products. He expects the unit to go into operation by 2022.
"We will take possession of the project site this month and development work will start immediately."
HPL would finance the project through bank loans.
Currently, HPL employs 3,700 persons and it manufactures branded generic products for local and overseas markets in Asia, Africa and the Commonwealth of the Independent States, which comprise 12 countries.
The business started its journey in 1988 through the establishment of a company in colaboration with Roche (Bangladesh) Ltd.
Until 2001, Healthcare was responsible for importing and distributing Roche products to the neighborhood market.
In 1996, HPL setup its pharmaceutical plant to create the products rather than importing them from Roche, Switzerland and other local generic items for the domestic market. It now produces more than 200 products.
There are about 10 local companies, including Eskayef, Square, Beacon and Beximco, which produce API materials.
Local production can meet 5 to 6 % of the twelve-monthly demand for the recycleables from the pharmaceutical sector, which has grown in recent years significantly.
Bangladesh spends about $1.3 billion each year to import APIs from the united states, Taiwan, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, France and the united kingdom.
"Our pharmaceutical sector will donate to export diversification. Therefore, we always welcome API manufacturers to economic zones," said Paban Chowdhury, executive chairman of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (Beza).
HPL and the Beza signed the land-lease agreement in October 2018.
Chowdhury said HPL's investment would attract the pharmaceutical sector from home and abroad to purchase the zone.
A site has been reserve for pharmaceutical facilities in order that they are able to use effluent treatment facilities in order to avoid the hassle of waste management.
"Securing more foreign direct investment for the country's Tk 22,000-crore pharmaceutical industry, particularly API manufacturing, is vital to give an additional boost to the sector," Chowdhury said.
About 98 % of the annual domestic demand for pharmaceutical products is met by local companies. Bangladesh also ships medicines to 144 countries.
Pharmaceutical exports rose 4.5 % year-on-year to $136 million within the last fiscal year.
The National Board of Revenue announced that imports of API products, pharmaceutical raw materials and reagents would receive VAT exemption until 2025 in a bid to provide a boost to the sector.
However, the tax authorities imposed a condition on API producers that want them to invest at least 1 % of their gross annual turnover on research and development for them to avail the power. The minimum value-addition should be 60 per cent.
