http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=166379
New insulin plant opens
Product to be available in Oct
Staff Correspondent
A high-tech insulin manufacturing plant opened in Bangladesh yesterday amid hopes of providing world-class medicines to the country’s growing diabetic patients.
The plant in Tongi is a tie-up between the world’s biggest insulin maker Novo Nordisk and Eskayef Bangladesh Ltd, a leading local pharmaceutical company, which will start selling drugs in the local market in October next year.
Lise Kingo, executive vice president and chief of staff of Novo Nordisk, inaugurated the plant on the premises of Eskayef.
The Nordisk-Eskayef plant will manufacture over 5 million vials a year, maintaining the high quality standards followed by Novo Nordisk across the world.
Senior Vice President of International Operations Jesper Høiland, Vice President for Oceania and South East Asia Sanjeev Shishoo, Bangladesh Diabetic Association President Prof AK Azad Khan and Eskayef Director Simeen Hossain were present at the inaugural.
Kingo said producing insulin drugs in local settings has become important for Bangladesh, as the number of diabetic patients has increased in the country as elsewhere in the world.
“With Eskayef as our partner, we will continue to work to improve the lives of the people in Bangladesh,” she said.
Simeen Hossain said the joint venture represented a milestone in the history of Eskayef. “There would be no compromise in delivering quality products,” she assured.
Jesper Høiland said there would be proper technology transfer under the joint venture, as Novo Nordisk believes in uniform global standard.
He said the tie-ups among Novo Nordisk, Eskayef and Diabetic Association would make a significant difference in looking after patients with diabetes.
Novo Nordisk officials were in Dhaka yesterday to attend the inauguration of the insulin making plant.
During the ceremony, they also expressed confidence that the plant would be able to make quality insulin matching global standards.
They also inspected Eskayef’s various departments and facilities, particularly the manufacturing unit, quality control measures and water treatment plant and expressed satisfaction.
The partnership deal, signed in 2009, has facilitated establishment of the hi-tech plant to make these sophisticated biotechnological products in Bangladesh.
The plant, the third set up by the company in Asia after China and India, opened at a time when nearly 6 million Bangladeshis are said to be suffering from diabetes.
The number is expected to cross 10 million in the next 20 years due to changes in lifestyle, rapid urbanisation, obesity, lack of physical work and ageing of people.
Novo Nordisk enjoys more than 80 percent share in the insulin segment of diabetic care market in Bangladesh.
A Rajan Kumar, managing director of Novo Nordisk Pharma Pvt Ltd, and general managers of Eskayef were also present on the occasion.
