Danapha Pharmaceutical joint-stock company have broken ground for a pharmaceutical plant and Hi-tech research and development centre at the Da Nang Hi-Tech Park, highlighting the city’s post COVID-19 economic recovery plan.

The project, which will be built on 3ha and costing VND900 billion (US$39 million), should finish the first phase in late 2023 with a capacity of producing 1.5 billion units of drugs under the GMP-EU (good manufacturing practices criteria set by the Europe Union) standards per year.

It’s the third plant that the pharmaceutical producer has invested in Da Nang including an oriental medicine plant and its first plant meeting GMP-WHO (good manufacturing practices criteria set by the World Health Organisation) standards in 2009.

Danapha was seen as the first Vietnamese pharmaceutical company to enter the Da Nang 1184ha Hi-tech Park after it was granted an investment licence for the first nano-technology and biotech project for research and production tablets and units of injectable drugs as well as nanotechnology-based cancer injections studies.

The local drug producer had invested $3.5 million to build a new production line for the Golden Star Balm for exporting to Russia, East Europe and Southeast Asia.

It said 20 million units of various balm products including inhalers, balm and medicated oil are exported to Russia and East European countries annually.

Danapha has been expanding the country’s first herbal medicinal farm (saffron and Ming aralia with the standards of the World Health Organisation-guided Good Agricultural and Collection Practice) to provide more world-standard herbal medical products for the domestic and export markets in the future.

The Da Nang-based company has opened an office in Virginia in the United States to help export market expansion and to improve the production capacity of locally made drugs qualifying for the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, the regulations enforced by the US Food and Drug.

According to the city’s investment promotion agency, a group of 30 pharmaceutical production companies from India has been seeking a plan to build the first Pharma Park in Viet Nam and Da Nang Hi-tech Park has been suggested as a prime location.

Da Nang has attracted 905 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects worth $3.85 billion, with the hi-tech park alone a destination for 24 of those projects with a total of $815 million.

A series of investors including aerospace components manufacturer Universal Alloy Corporation (UAC) of the US; Tokyo Keiki Precision Technology Inc and Niwa Foundry from Japan; and Dentium company from South Korea already operate factories at the hi-tech park. — VNS