The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is reviving talks with local companies Lloyd Laboratories, Pascual Laboratories and United Laboratories Inc. for the establishment of a modern pharmaceutical park in the country, its director-general Tereso Panga said.
In a news forum over the weekend, Panga disclosed PEZA is in talks with Royal Cargo Pharma Logistics, the first Good Distribution Practices -certified logistics service provider in the Philippines, to complement the proposed pharma-zone ecosystem.
Panga said the pharmaceutical ecozone is a two-pronged approach for the Philippines to have local production of drugs and make medicines readily available and affordable to Filipinos. This will target manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and other related activities including research and development (R&D), clinical testing and trials among others.
At the forum, Panga and Dr. Samuel Zacate, director-general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) disclosed the agencies have had discussions with the Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs (OSAPIEA) led by Secretary Frederick Go on their initiatives on phamarceutical industry, which is one of OSAPIEA’s priority sectors.
In one of the discussions, the group agreed to study the provision of a green lane for PEZA locators and update the PEZA-FDA memorandum of agreement, initially established in 2014, to improve licensing and registration for prospective and existing PEZA registered business enterprises. This update is intended to institutionalize the reduction in the turnaround time through pre-assessment activities that may be transferred to PEZA.
According to Panga, streamlining the drug application process will encourage more local producers to boost their R&D and manufacturing capabilities and lower drug costs for the general public.
Zacate said these initiatives are expected to elevate the local drug supply and reduce costs to competitive generic levels, akin to those in India.
Panga had proposed several potential locations for the inaugural zone, considering both the concentration of industry players and the FDA’s prospective plans to establish laboratories.
Under the CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) Law, health, medical, and pharmaceutical-related activities fall under Tier II, meaning they will be able to enjoy five to 7 years of income tax holiday and 10 years special corporate income tax (for export enterprises) or five years enhanced deduction (for domestic market-oriented enterprises).
PEZA hosts 26 operating companies into the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products and medical equipment or devices, such as Terumo, Arkray Industry, Royale Life Pharma, JMS Healthcare, and Philipcare Medical, generating about P25.49 billion of investments and more than 19,000 direct jobs for the country.
