The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said the country is gaining interest from global pharmaceutical companies and related industries to set up their facilities here as the ease of doing business improves and with the construction of the first ecozone exclusive for healthcare products.

On Wednesday, PEZA signed a registration agreement for the Victoria Industrial Park, which is the country’s first pharmaceutical ecozone, and a memorandum of agreement with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“This twin event could be regarded as a pivotal moment to create a pharmaceutical economic zone, making basic medicines more affordable and accessible for all Filipinos,” PEZA Director General Tereso Panga said at the signing ceremony in Pasay City.

“These agreements aligned with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to reduce cost of medicines by fostering an environment where pharmaceutical companies can manufacture and supply the domestic market efficiently,” he added.

Panga said he recently met nine Indian pharmaceutical companies, five of which expressed their interest to put up facilities in the Philippines. These include USV Private Ltd., Scimplify, Nephroplus, Glenmark, and Shilpa Medicare.

He added that PEZA was able to attract two big Japanese pharmaceutical companies like Kaneko and Takeda. The latter will put up a plasma extraction facility for the manufacture of drugs for rare auto-immune diseases and immunodeficient patients.

Likewise, the PEZA chief said the agency has engaged with the Pakistani Pharmaceutical Industry Association that paves the way for Royal Life Pharma to set up the first drug manufacturing facility for intravenous solutions and injections.

Panga said PEZA’s recent investment mission in Germany attracted the EMTS Group to register its project for a medical equipment calibration facility, which is a first of its kind in the country.

A Taiwanese company, which is one of the biggest suppliers of hospital bed in the United States, will also invest in the PEZA zone, he said.

The Katinko Group, whose family is also the developer of the Victoria Industrial Park, is eyeing an additional two facilities on top of its manufacturing plant in Tarlac.

Greenstone Pharmaceutical chief executive officer Melissa Yeung Yap said the current facility in Tarlac processes raw materials for its Katinko products that are being manufactured in Cavite. The expansion plan in Tarlac will also involve the production of new product lines.

“Slowly, we’re inching up, we’re going up higher value adding because of this mere announcement that we will have soon our pharma(ceutical) ecozone in the Philippines,” Panga said.

Ease of doing business

The Victoria Industrial Park, which was proclaimed by President Marcos as a special economic zone on July 4, is a 30-hectare development in Barangay Baculong in Victoria, Tarlac.

Pharmaceutical locators in the new ecozone will soon experience an easier transaction with the FDA as the pharmazone will also host an FDA laboratory.

FDA Director General Samuel Zacate said his office has submitted innovative policies to the Department of Health, which will prolong the validity of license to operate from three years for initial application and five years for renewal to six years for initial application and 12 years for renewal. The same period will apply for the certificate of product registration, except for the monitored products.

“It’s already submitted to the Department of Health for final signature of Secretary Teodoro Herbosa,” Zacate said. (PNA)