Berli Jucker (BJC) plans to set up its own pharmaceutical manufacturing plant and to launch its first healthcare stores this year to support its supply chain, which currently relies on imported products.
President Aswin Techajaroen-vikul said the company had been in talks with a business partner for this project while studying the feasibility of an appropriate investment. The options range from repackaging finished products from overseas or partly processing chemicals or raw materials, to full local production. Therefore, the size of the investment will depend on which of these options is chosen, and BJC will make a decision soon.
Aswin said the company would emphasise biotech and pharmaceutical products for cancer treatment as the first priority while other exported products would remain unchanged. Under this project, the company wants to transfer technology, skills and expertise from the partner. BJC's vision is to complete the supply chain by establishing its first retail pharmacy stores. The first couple of stores will be opened in Bangkok some time between now and the third quarter of the year. The stores will provide both traditional drugs and food supplements to serve urban-lifestyle customers. All this is a part of an aggressive plan to drive revenue in the healthcare-supply business unit. BJC is aiming for 15-per-cent growth this year in sales contributed by the healthcare unit to Bt3.77 billion, mainly based on an increase in demand for medical equipment and medication from both state and private hospitals.
The healthcare unit comprises the medical and pharmaceutical divisions. The medical division is responsible for distributing medical and surgery equipment, as well as providing after-sales and engineering support for a wide range of products, from X-ray machines to computerised tomography and magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) scanners, ultrasound machines and information-technology systems to robotic surgery.In the first quarter, sales by the healthcare-supply unit dropped slightly, because several government hospitals decided to postpone purchases to the second quarter because of a delay in the Development Policy Loan project. However, the medical division achieved outstanding sales and profit in the fourth quarter of last year from the sale of da Vinci robotic surgery systems, BJC says.
The pharmaceutical division also reported higher sales, particularly for LIV-Gamma (an immune-system treatment) and nephrology (kidney-treatment) products.
Source : THE NATION Issued date 23 May 2012
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