U.S. pharmaceutical giant opens first Asian plant
U.S. pharmaceutical giant opens first Asian plant
SINGAPORE (AFP): U.S. pharmaceutical giant Schering-Plough
launched its first Asian primary manufacturing facility here
yesterday amid optimism that its regional turnover will expand up
to 30 percent by 2000.
"We are expecting sales to grow 25 to 30 percent per year in
Asia over the next three years and in many of the economies,
market share could double," Raul Cesan, president of Schering-
Plough Pharmaceuticals told reporters.
He said that the company's turnover expectations in Asia were
"very much higher" than the industry's annual growth target of 10
percent in the region.
The Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical market is worth US$15 billion
at present.
The New Jersey-headquartered Schering-Plough has cornered only
about 1.5 percent of the Asian market so far although it global
sales turnover last year touched $5.7 billion, company officials
said.
Cesan said the company's high sales expectations in Asia were
based on the big demand for drugs to treat allergies and asthma,
medical problems surfacing at a rapid rate in the region.
Allergy and respiratory products form the company's largest
therapeutic group, with sales last year of more than $2 billion.
"The market for asthma and allergy products is growing at 15
to 20 percent per year on a worldwide basis. One of the reasons
could be due to environmental factors and better diagnostics,"
Cesan said.
Schering-Plough, whose pre-tax profit rose by 15 percent to
1.6 billion dollars last year, has posted 11 consecutive years of
double-digit growth despite a period of severe downward pressure
on health care costs in all major world markets, officials said.
The $214.3 million Singapore facility launched Friday will
produce ingredients used in drugs to treat asthma and prostate
cancer, and for cardiovascular therapy and dermatological use,
said Patrick Yeung, managing director of the company's Singapore
branch.
The ingredients would be shipped to Schering-Plough's 30
plants worldwide for the production of pharmaceutical products.
The Singapore facility, launched by Health Minister Yeo Cheow
Teong, consists of a multi-product pharmaceutical chemicals plant
and a dedicated steroids manufacturing plant.
Similar primary manufacturing facilities of the company are
located in Puerto Rico and Ireland.
Minister Yeo said the facility was in line with the
positioning of Singapore as a value-adding partner for foreign
companies in upstream pharmaceutical activities.
Schering-Plough also signed an agreement Friday with the
BioInformatics Center of the National University of Singapore
under which the U.S. company will employ software developed by
the center to aid them in their drug discovery and development
efforts.
Labor-short and land-starved Singapore is positioning itself
as a research and development center for high-value-added
industries in the Asia-Pacific region.