Hemas’ pharma arm Morison launches new logo
J.L. Morison Son & Jones (Ceylon) PLC (JLM) owned by Hemas Holdings PLC launched their new logo, the hexagon but their old emblem, ‘the ship’ hasn’t quite sailed away.
Morison PLC Managing Director and Sri Lanka Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (SLPMA) President Trihan Perera told the Business Times on the sidelines of this launch on Wednesday that JLM, the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer came out as an independent brand with its new identity, ‘Morison PLC’ with the hexagon as its new logo, but the old ship is ‘very much there’. He pointed it out on the new visiting cards on the right bottom side.
The reason for the new branding was to reflect the science, technology and the innovation that Morison PLC has now cottoned onto. This is reinforced by the fact that Morison PLC has invested US$ 13.5 million on a new state-of-the-art Research and Manufacturing facility located within the SLINTEC (Sri Lanka Institute of Nano Technology) Park in Pitipana, Homagama which is expected to be in operation by March 2019 and will further augment the manufacturing capacity of the company.
The reason to retain the ship according to Mr. Perera was because JLM was recognised for more than 7-decades by this ship logo and it was still an important emblem.
The global pharmaceutical industry is one of the fastest growing industries and is expected to reach $ 350 billion by 2020. In this light, Mr. Perera noted that the SLPMA aims at bringing the pharmaceutical sector to become 70 per cent self-sufficient by 2023, but certain import taxes on pharmaceutical raw materials and machinery has discouraged local manufacturing.
It’s not all bad though.
The government’s buy back initiative introduced in 2014 to stimulate the local manufacture of pharmaceuticals has gained good traction and the success of the scheme has led the government to cement a five year agreement which was signed in July 2015.
According to the SLPMA, Sri Lanka’s locally-manufactured pharmaceutical products cater to less than 15 per cent of domestic demand, while 85 per cent of pharmaceuticals worth $ 500 were imported last year. Major generic pharmaceutical manufacturers in Sri Lanka are State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC), MSJ, Astron, GSK, and Interpharm.
Mr. Perera further said that value added tax on certain machinery imports and port and airport levy on many raw materials also discourage local manufacturing. He said that the government needs to create a level playing field for local manufactures by removing these restrictions, enabling the private sector to contribute to the manufacture of pharmaceutical goods on a larger scale.
Mr. Perera said that after securing a registration to export drugs to Myanmar (as was reported by the Business Times in May), the company received a substantial purchase order from Myanmar. “We will start exporting within a few weeks,” Mr. Perera said noting that JLM will initially be exporting products such as Lacto Calamine and Morison’s Gripe Mixture to Myanmar. “We will concentrate initially exporting over the counter (OTC) items and pharma items,” he said.