Bidiphar to build $36 mln pharma plant in central Vietnam

Vietnamese drugs manufacturer Bidiphar plans to build a 2.4-hectare factory costing VND840 billion ($35.5 million) in the central province of Binh Dinh.

The Binh Dinh-based company’s new plant will produce small volume parenterals, which are sterile drugs, shows a regulatory filing to the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), where Bidiphar is listed as DBD.

The new facility will be located in Nhon Hoi A Industrial Park in Quy Nhon town, producing injections, eye drops and other sterile drugs that meet European good manufacturing practice standards.

The factory will supply around 120 million products annually, equivalent to 1,600 tons, according to Bidiphar. Of the total investment, it expects contributed capital to reach VND700 billion ($29.58 million), while the balance will come from loans.

Bidiphar plans to handle investment procedures in this third quarter and start first-phase operations by the first quarter of 2027.

A Bidiphar financial report showed that in the second quarter of 2023, it earned VND63.8 billion ($2.7 million) in after-tax profit, up 26.3% from a year earlier.

The company attributed this performance to its improved business structure, promotions, and effective cost control.

Earlier this July, the Drug Administration of Vietnam fined Bidiphar VND100 million ($4,200) for a low-quality batch of its cancer drug Methotrexate Bidiphar.

Bidiphar CEO Pham Thanh Huong said the incident took place in 2021, and her firm immediately recalled the entire batch and checked over other batches of the product, and found no faults.

She added her company also immediately shut down that problematic production line to assess all risk factors and take necessary preventive actions. The production of this cancer drug has been shifted to a brand-new line with “modern technology” at the company’s operating plant, also in Quy Nhon town.