Pharma companies seek new digs in Hambantota and Ingiriya
At least 10 companies, including a giant in the biscuit manufacturing sector, have requested the government to allocate them land in either Hambantota or Ingiriya to start pharmaceutical manufacturing. After their attempts at starting in the manufacturing zone at the Oyamaduwa “Deyata Kirula” site in the Anuradhapura District did not materialise.
Maliban Biosimilars Pvt Ltd, George Steuart Health Pvt Ltd, Premium International Biologics Pvt Ltd, Luxus Medeline Ltd, Suraki SV Pvt Ltd, Blue Ceylon Investments Pvt Ltd, Meditech Lanka Pvt Ltd, Epion Health Pvt Ltd, Cloud Biotech Pvt Ltd and Hestila Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd have requested land from the Ministry of Health.
“We also wrote to the Minister of Trade and requested a Board of Investment (BOI) or an industrial zone. They are working on allocating the Hambantota BOI zone,” a pharmaceutical manufacturer told the Sunday Times Business. He said both the Ministry of Health as well as the Ministry of Industries have agreed that the site was the wrong selection as it has an elephant corridor, unsuitable roads, no electricity etc.
The Oyamaduwa site was intended for a project aimed at manufacturing a diverse array of pharmaceutical products, including tablets, capsules, liquid medicines, injections, surgical instruments, syringes, surgical needles, sutures, bandages, and plasters. The selected local investors were granted a lease for the land for 35 years, with a five-year grace period before any lease payments commence. The Health Minister’s proposal to establish a pharmaceutical manufacturing zone, along with the associated supply and regulation of pharmaceuticals, has been approved by the Cabinet as a strategic initiative under the State Ministry during the previous government. However, this plan did not materialise as the health ministry’s oversight into the zone development had been low and coupled with the pandemic, the progress had been very slow. The Ministry had decided to terminate the contract with the zone developer, Spectrum Lanka Pvt Ltd, but the company had obtained an injunction against the health ministry. Earlier this year, the court had ordered to withdraw the injunction and terminate the contract, but the developer had requested compensation, upon which the court had ordered the ministry to pay the compensation through arbitration. The agreement with Spectrum Lanka entailed that the pharmaceutical manufacturing companies had to pay US$ 40,000 per acre for development and thereafter $ 15,000 annually for maintenance.
At the start of this project in Oyamaduwa, the government said that around 85 acres of land had been allocated for the construction of 21 pharmaceutical factories and that around 2,000 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs were to be created.
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