New Straits Times, June 21, 2008
US company to invest
RM815m in Malaysia plant
From Shahriman Johari
SAN DIEGO: US-based firm Trusgen LLP plans to invest
some RM815 million over five years in a
manufacturing facility in Malaysia.
It will carry out contract manufacturing works for
pharmaceutical companies in the field of biologics
where the products are derived from living sources.
Biologics products include vaccines and blood.
“Biologics is going to be the wave of the future.
The market is going to explode,” chief executive
Bruce Register told Malaysian journalists at a
briefing here on Thursday.
Trusgen was one of five foreign firms that signed
deals with Malaysian Biotechnology Corp (BiotechCorp)
and Malaysian companies on the sidelines of BIO
2008, a global biotechnology event.
The companies exchanged their agreements at a
ceremony witnessed by Science, Technology and
Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus J. Ongkili,
Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam
and BiotechCorp chief Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood.
Iskandar is bullish on biologics as it only accounts
for 15 per cent of the global market for healing
products.
Trusgen’s Malaysian plant will be built on a 6ha
site. Register is evaluating three sites, one of
which will be chosen to house the facility.
Although the US company has only signed a memorandum
of understanding, it wants to wrap up the agreement
within two months.
“We want to move this very, very quickly,” Register
said.
Trusgen expects its Malaysian business to make a
profit in the sixth year, with some RM978 million in
sales.
The company is already in early stage talks with
large pharmaceutical companies, Register said.
Meanwhile, Success Nexus Sdn Bhd, a company owned by
its executive chairman Datuk Ramly Ahmad, signed a
deal awarding Italy’s Merloni Progetti a 13-million
contract to build a biofuel plant in Lumut, Perak.
Merloni, an engineering firm, has also agreed to buy
80 per cent of the plant’s 100,000-tonne production
over five years.
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