Malaysia's Hovid to set up plant in India

Malaysian diversified pharmaceutical company Hovid Bhd is to establish its first overseas manufacturing plant in India, to produce generic drugs by the end of this year, according to its chief executive, David Ho, who added that the company was in the final stages of discussions with the Indian government.

In an interview, he said: "our Indian expansion plan is part of the company's strategy to remain regionally competitive in the pharmaceutical market in view of the implementation of Free Trade Area in July, as once the FTA took effect, many local pharmaceutical companies, such as Hovid, would stand to lose out to USA-based pharmaceutical companies. This was due to many patent laws for the production of generic drugs, expected to be unfavorable to the local pharmaceutical companies. India was chosen in view of the country's policy on the patent laws as well as cheaper labor cost. We want to make India our main market for generic drugs while our focus for Malaysia will be on higher value products."