Regional growth centers eyed for pharma ecozones

March 18, 2024 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Ecozone developers are looking at the provinces of Bulacan, Laguna, Tarlac and Cebu as areas for establishing pharmaceutical economic zones in the country, according to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).

“We got feelers from ecozone developers wanting to put up a pharma park in Cebu, Bulacan, Laguna and Tarlac provinces,” PEZA director general Tereso Panga said in a Viber message yesterday.

He said PEZA is hoping to get the presidential proclamation for the first pharma park within the year.

PEZA is currently in the process of crafting the guidelines for the registration of pharma parks in the country.

PEZA said the agency and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently convened a meeting with the Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs (OSAPIEA) on the proposed pharmaceutical ecozones.

The meeting was a follow-up to the sectoral meeting with the FDA last month where President Marcos proposed the setting up of pharma ecozones to serve as one-stop shops to streamline the drug application process and encourage local production of drugs and medical devices and other related activities including research and development, clinical testing and trials to make medicines affordable and readily available to the public.

PEZA and FDA also agreed to study the provision of a green lane for PEZA locators and update the agencies’ memorandum of agreement initially established in 2014 to improve licensing and registration for prospective and existing PEZA registered business enterprises (RBEs).

With the pharmaceutical industry identified as a strategic industry in the Philippines, health, medical and pharmaceutical-related activities will be able to enjoy incentives such as five to seven years of income tax holiday and 10 years special corporate income tax for export enterprises or five years enhanced deduction for domestic market-oriented enterprises under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act.

Panga said companies will also be able to enjoy other incentives when they locate in the ecozones.

The PEZA is reviving talks with leading Filipino companies engaged in pharmaceutical-related activities such as Lloyd Laboratories, Pascual Laboratories and United Laboratories Inc. for the establishment of a modern pharma park in the country.

In addition, PEZA is holding discussions with Royal Cargo Pharma Logistics, the first Good Distribution Practices-certified logistics service provider in the Philippines, to complement the proposed pharma-zone ecosystem.

Panga said OSAPIEA and FDA’s support will be important to both existing and would-be RBEs engaged in medical devices manufacturing that are looking to establish their drug manufacturing operations in the country.

“With this dynamic partnership, the steering group is confident that the country will see the establishment of its first true pharmaceutical economic zone during this administration and signal to global pharmaceutical industry players that we are open to doing business with them, on top of our already-competitive fiscal incentives,” he said.

As of December 2023, PEZA is hosting 26 operating companies engaged in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products and medical equipment or devices including Terumo, Arkray Industry, Royale Life Pharma, JMS Healthcare and Philipcare Medical.

These companies generate about P25.489 billion of investments and over 19,000 direct jobs