Pfizer plans S'pore plant

Pfizer plans S'pore plant

SINGAPORE (AFP): US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced plans Wednesday for a S$600 million (US$343 million) manufacturing facility in Singapore, officials said.

The eight-hectare (19.76-acre) pharmaceutical ingredients factory, to be fully operational by 2004, will serve global markets, the company said in a statement.

It will be the first of its kind for Pfizer in Asia and the eighth in the world, the company's global manufacturing president John Mitchell said.

Asian sales for Pfizer, which manufactures the anti-impotence drug viagra, are forecast to grow 20 percent this year from 1.8 billion US dollars in 1999, Mitchell said.

"We expect that the growth in this region will be equal to or even faster than the growth in the global market over the next three to four years," he said in a news conference.

Global sales this year are projected at more than 30 billion US dollars.