Sanofi earmarks $75m for Vietnamese plant
pharmafile | April 19, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Sanofi, vietnamÂ
Sanofi has broken ground on a new manufacturing facility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, as part of its push into Southeast Asia.
The $75 million investment in the facility at Saigon High Tech Park is Sanofi’s largest in Vietnam, which was recently tipped by Business Monitor International as one of the next key emerging pharma markets as growth in China and other countries starts to slow down.
The pharma and consumer health product facility is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2015 and when online will have an initial capacity of 90 million dosage units a year, with the potential to reach 150 million units at peak. It will serve the domestic Vietnamese market as well as exporting to other Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.
Vietnam’s drug market was valued at around $2.84 billion last year and is expected to grow more than 17% to reach $3.34 billion this year thanks to increasing access to healthcare among the population and a shift towards centralised pharmaceutical bidding by the government.
“Sanofi has been present in Vietnam for more than 50 years and has built the number one position in one of the most dynamic Southeast Asian countries,” said the group’s chief executive Chris Viehbacher.
“This new investment will contribute to further strengthen Sanofi’s leadership position in emerging markets,” he added.
BMI believes Vietnam is a high-risk, high-reward play for multinational businesses at the moment, especially as the incumbent communist government is under increasing public pressure to introduce democratic reforms.
That said, recent strategic partnerships with other countries, including a link-up with India on biotechnology – may lead to a softening of the government’s hitherto hard-line stance, says the market research firm.
“Vietnam [is currently] the 11th most attractive pharmaceutical market in Asia Pacific,” it notes in its most recent research report on the country’s pharma and healthcare sector.
Phil Taylor
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