ACI invests Tk 1.1b in plant expansion

Leading drug maker ACI Pharma has started expanding its plants investing Tk 1.10 billion to tap into the growing domestic and overseas markets, a top company official said.

"We've already begun to expand the capacity of our drug manufacturing unit at Narayanganj. Demands of our products have swelled to double-digit this year," said M Mohibus Zaman, the company's chief operating officer.

He said it would boost the company's production capacity as the export market for Bangladeshi drugs is also increasing over the years.

Last year, ACI Pharma's turnover touched to Tk 3.0 billion and it is already supplying drugs throughout the country from its Narayanganj factory.

The drug maker employs more than 2,000 jobs and its shipment of pharma products to some Asian and African countries amounted to US$1.2 million in 2010, Mr. Zaman said.

"Actually, Bangladesh's nearly US$2.0 billion drug market is growing day by day due to demand growth every year. We want to garner a big pie of the growing market," he said.

The ACI chief operating officer said in the first phase, the company has expanded the unit on an 18,500 square feet area beside the existing plant in Narayanganj,

The new unit began manufacturing drugs in July this year, he added.

"The second unit will come into production in March next year and another unit by December 2012," he said.

"Our expanded manufacturing units will cerate nearly 200 new jobs at the factory for making medicine," Mr. Zaman added.

In the planned three new units, ACI will produce oral solid products like tablets and capsules, he added.

Bangladesh, home to nearly 150 million people, has a growing medicine demand, with more than 100 companies are mass-producing drugs to supply in the local market.

Mr. Zaman said his company is also planning to set up another large drug manufacturing unit to grab the potential global markets.

He said the size of the global drug market is estimated at $700 billion. "If Bangladesh can bag one per cent of the market, it can export medicines worth $7.0 billion."

More than a dozen of Bangladeshi drug manufacturing companies export their products to some Asian and African countries after meeting the local demand.

Government data showed that in last financial year 2010-11, the country's drug export rose $44.27 million, an 8.53 per cent growth compared with the previous fiscal.