Unilab Inc. is asking the Philippine government to explore inviting global manufacturing companies to support the country’s mulled expansion of its science and technology base.
In particular, Jose Maria Ochave, senior vice president of Unilab Inc. for business development, said nations such as Japan, Taiwan and Cuba, which have been known to have a flourishing pharmaceutical industry, as they seek to improve government-to-government engagement with countries that have a higher likelihood of forging technology transfer relationships.
For Japan alone, Ochave said there is a push on the part of their government for its population to use generic medicines.
“And we all know it’s costly to produce not just medicine but any other product in Japan, and therefore, there is a thought that perhaps you can invite the Japanese to come over, establish their facilities in PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority), especially for the Japanese market,” he said.
“What’s the benefit to us? The benefit is that our workforce here gets trained by these Japanese pharmaceutical companies, and we expand our science and technology base here,” he added.
On the other hand, he said Taiwan also has a potential for government-to-government engagement as Taiwan has a “tiny market,” and the Philippine market is “big” for them.
“Therefore, any manufacturer (like) Taiwanese manufacturer may find it encouraging to establish a facility here in the Philippines plus the long historical relationship between (the two countries) and the population of Taiwan or the Chinese and the Filipino-Chinese and course the entire Filipino population here,” Ochave explained.
Ochave also identified Cuba given its advanced science and technology.
“I think the stated preference of Cuba is always G2G, we don’t know whether this is possible, but I think we are going to try,” he added.
Ochave presented the result of the consultation for the health and life sciences cluster.
Health and life sciences are among the industry clusters which are the Department of Trade and Industry’s priorities for the next six years.
Others include the manufacturing and transport cluster; technology, media, and telecommunications cluster; and modern basic needs and resilient economy cluster.
Ochave cited other recommendations of participants of the health and life sciences cluster, including aligning policies of various agencies to encourage local manufacturing.
“One such example has a green lane for product registration for locally manufactured products and, if it is possible, given our existing procurement laws, to give preferential treatment to locally manufactured products, especially for government purchases,” he said.
Moreover, he highlighted the need to strengthen public-private partnerships to improve access to innovative medicines instead of focusing on price control that tends to inhibit the entry of these medicines.