Local, foreign firms to upgrade Yangon pharmaceutical factory
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To boost medicine production, Myanmar's Ministry of Industry plans to upgrade Pharmaceutical Factory No 1 in Yangon in cooperation with local and overseas companies.
At present, entrepreneurs in Myanmar and abroad can bid for contracts to build the facility and install equipment.
Interested companies must send an Expression of Interest (EOI) to the Foodstuff and Pharmaceutical Industry in Nay Pyi Taw by March 5.
A new facility to manufacture anti-venom injections was constructed in the compound of Pharmaceutical Factory No 1 in accordance with the good manufacturing practice (GMP) of the World Health Organisation.
The government has cooperated closely with private companies to construct state-owned factories, enterprises and buildings. Many of those facilities were later transferred to the private sector.
The Ministry of Industry has handed over some of its plots to the private sector at the low prices.
Myanmar imports much of its pharmaceutical drugs from neighbouring countries, including China, India and Thailand. Revenue generated from sales of imported drugs hit US$150 million in the 2009-10 fiscal year and rose to $244 million in the 2012-13 fiscal year.
According to data presented at the India Pharma and Healthcare Expo in Yangon, 45 per cent of Myanmar's imported drugs come from India.
“Myanmar’s pharmaceutical industry could be worth $700 million,” said Win Sithu Aung, chairperson of the Myanmar Medicine and Medical Equipment Merchant Association. “Currently, there are a total of six pharmaceutical factories [in Myanmar], but medicines are imported from neighbouring countries as well.”
Myanmar has signed onto the Pharmaceutical Product Working Group under the Asean Consultative Committee for Standards and Quality to develop cooperation schemes for pharmaceutical regulation among Asean member countries.
