Acme plans expansion with new Tk 215cr pharma unit

On completion of around 60 percent work, the new Tk 215 crore manufacturing unit of Acme Labora-tories Ltd plans to go into production next year.
Located at Dhamrai, the Acme Specialised Pharma-ceuticals Limited will produce anti-cancer and anti-AIDS drugs for the local market, now almost fully dependent on imports of such drugs.
However it will make other drugs too.
Cancer resistant drugs are now manufactured by one or two companies when cancer patients are on the rise in Bangladesh, according to industry people. “This new unit will help enhance our supply capacity to both local and international market by more than 20 percent from the very first year of production,” said Mizanur Rahman Sinha, Acme's managing director.
The new one of his pharmaceutical conglomerate, which has a track record of producing a wide range of medicines across the therapeutic spectrum for both human and animal health, also targets exports of its produces to rich nations including USA and UK, Sinha added.
Presently, Acme medicines are exported to 11 countries with around 55 percent of such growth a year.
“We are trying very hard to ensure meeting international compliance, while constructing the new unit. At the same time, we are strictly maintaining the regulations of the exporting countries,” said the boss of the local second largest medicine maker.
“We hopefully will go into production by June 2010. Its process of setting up started in 2008,” Sinha told The Daily Star.
Of the total fund for the new plant, Tk 130 crore will come from a syndicated loan, raised by Standard Chartered Bank as lead arranger. A term-loan deal was signed yesterday.
“We put emphasis on ensuring good health for all by manufacturing ethical drugs of the highest quality at affordable prices and reaching out those even to the remotest areas by proper distribution network,” said Mizanur Rahman Sinha.
Common people often fail to get access to anti-cancer drugs because of their unavailability in the local market, he pointed out.
In fiscal year 2008-09, Acme Laboratories recorded a Tk 400 crore sales in domestic market, while it posted Tk $1.2 million exports.
“ Experiencing a success in the domestic market, ACME started its first international operation by exporting medicines to Bhutan in 1995,” said Sinha, adding: “The volume of sales has increased significantly with an average growth rate of 50 percent every year.”
Among the medicines exported, antibiotic, anti-hypertensive, anti-ulcerant and vitamin are remarkable.
South-East Asia, Africa, Middle East and the EU are among the Acme's export destinations. Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Vietnam are the countries where it exports regularly.