The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) gave the greenlight on the application of Victoria Industrial Park in Victoria, Tarlac to be one of the country’s pharmaceutical manufacturing zones, following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to put up pharma-zones to encourage local production of essential medicines, making them affordable and more accessible to ordinary Filipinos.

On Wednesday, PEZA director general Tereso Panga and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) director general Samuel Zacate sealed a memorandum of agreement for the electronic and green lane facilitation of registered business enterprises’ applications for permits, as well as the Registration Agreement of Victoria Industrial Park as a pharma zone that will host an FDA laboratory.

Panga, during a press conference, said PEZA now hosts 27 pharma ecozones, scattered in different locations.

“So, what we aspire to accomplish by working with the FDA is having a dedicated economic zone to attract a cluster of industries. The idea is to develop a supply chain and provide the best ecosystem because in the end, if these elements are present in one ecozone, that would surely bring down the cost of medicines,” Panga said.

Meds 75% imported

The country imports 75 percent of medicines abroad, according to Panga.

Further, the PEZA chief said they have already talked to pharmaceutical companies in India who expressed willingness to put up shops in the new PEZA pharma zone.

“They are global industry leaders of their kind. They have patents for their medicines which are selling well in the US and Europe. Examples are companies that produce medicines for oncology, for the diabetic, among others. They also produce generic and over-the-counter medicines,” Panga said.

To date, the Katinko Group has already placed a manufacturing facility in Victoria, alongside other Indian companies.

Panga said that specifically, the PEZA guidelines will govern the establishment and registration of pharmazones in the country.

“This will also provide the qualifications (including minimum infrastructure requirements) and processes for potential pharma zone developers/operators. Likewise, it will outline registrable activities which locator companies may undertake within a pharma zone for them to avail of the fiscal and non-fiscal incentives under the PEZA framework,” according to Panga in a separate Facebook post.

To date, PEZA has registered 23 RBEs with Indian equity that generated P12.027 billion in investments, $315.69 million in annual exports, and 25,562 direct jobs.