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Tag: health

  • Kimia Farma builds pharmaceutical raw material factory

    Kimia Farma builds pharmaceutical raw material factory

    In cooperation with Sungwun Pharmacopia of South Korea, Indonesias state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Kimia Farma will build the first factory for pharmaceutical raw materials to meet the needs of medicine producers in the country.

    The construction of the pharmaceutical factory was inaugurated on Monday by Health Minister Nila F Moeloek, in the company of Kimia Farma President Director Rusdi Rosman, Food and Drug Regulatory Agency (BPOM) Chief Penny Lukito, and House Commission-IX Chairman Dede Yusuf.

    Rusdi Rosman said the factory, located at the Lippo industrial area in Cikarang, Bekasi, will be built in stages on a six-hectare plot of land and at a cost of Rp132 billion.

    In building the first factory for pharmaceutical raw materials, Kimia Farma will cooperate with Sungwun Pharmacopia Co. Ltd, because of their experience in producing raw materials for medicines.

    Further, the Kimia Farma president director noted that the factory will be built in accordance with the standard of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and is expected to be completed by the end of 2017, while the selling of Active Pharmaceutical Raw Materials (API) is planned to begin in early 2018.

    Rusdi noted that the factory will produce eight types of raw materials, including Simvastatin, Atorvastatin, Rosuvastatin, Pantoprazole, Esomeprazole, Rabeprazole, Clopidogrel and Sarpogrelate, with a production capacity of 30 tons per year.

    Production of the raw materials is to meet 100 percent of the needs of the pharmaceutical industry in Indonesia, as well as for market export.

    Kimia Farma will also manufacture seven types of raw materials that can be used for cosmetics and dietary supplements, and to be exported to Korea, Japan and America.

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  • Philippines interested in Indonesian medical support ship

    Philippines interested in Indonesian medical support ship

    After purchasing two Strategic Sealift Vessel (SSV) warships from PT PAL Indonesia, the Philippine government is considering putting in another order for a medical support vessel from Indonesia’s state-owned shipbuilder.

    During the 2016 Asian Defense & Security (ADAS) exhibition in Manila, Philippine Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana held a discussion with Brig. Gen. Jan Pieter Ate from the Indonesian ADAS delegation on Indonesian defense products.

    “The Secretary of National Defense and the Philippines Navy chief of staff are impressed with the medical support vessel that will be fit for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations,” Jan Pieter, the Defense Ministry’s director of the defense industry and technology.

    According to Jan Pieter, the Philippine secretary of defense had shown a deep interest in the 123-meter vessel and spent a lot of time looking at the vessel’s mock-up.

    It was reported that the Philippines had also put in an order for the CN235-200 and N212i aircraft from state-owned airplane maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia in 2015.

    The three-day ADAS 2016 exhibition ends on Friday.

    According to its official website, ADAS 2016 attracts exhibitors from around the world and works closely with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

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  • Indonesia outlines strategy for sports development

    Indonesia outlines strategy for sports development

    Indonesia President Joko Widodo on Wednesday stressed on the development of sports which have the potential to garner medals at international championships, including badminton, archery and weightlifting.

    “Prioritise development of games which have already shown achievements,” President Widodo said at the State Palace after congratulating the country’s medallists at the Rio Olympics, including the gold medallists in the badminton mixed doubles.

    In addition to that one gold medal, Indonesia also collected one silver medal and one bronze medal in weightlifting competitions at the Olympics, improving from the achievement at the Olympics in 2012, during which only one silver medal and one bronze medal were secured, reports Xinhua.

    Widodo added that the development “includes the improvements of facilities, infrastructure and training camps”.

    “If it is better undertaken with a long strategy, more gold medals will be able to be garnered,” he said.

    Widodo said that he had coordinated with the sports minister on how to materialise the new strategy.

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  • New Zealand’s Ministry of Health approves MS cloud services

    New Zealand’s Ministry of Health approves MS cloud services

    New Zealand’s Ministry of Health has officially approved the use of cloud services for advancing the country’s electronic health service capabilities.

    Specifically, Microsoft’s core cloud services Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online have been deemed to meet the ministry’s requirements for storage of personal health information.

    Barrie Sheers, Managing Director for Microsoft New Zealand, said the government’s decision to use Microsoft’s Trusted Public Cloud services will be transformative for the eHealth agenda in New Zealand.

    “New Zealand’s health tech industry is today worth $1.3 billion to the local economy, and our country significantly punches above its weight on the international stage with health tech innovation,” he said.

    “With leading exporters like Orion Health and more than a hundred other smaller independent software vendors, the health tech sector in New Zealand is one that continues to grow and provide a burgeoning opportunity for export to the fast growing global health market.”

    With the advent of personalized medicine, genomics, intelligent sensors, advanced diagnostics and laboratory tests, data usage by health organizations will also increase as the sector builds ever more advanced models of the human body, according to Gabe Rijpma, senior director of health and social services Asia at Microsoft.

    “Being able to process all this data, store it, analyze it and make intelligent predictions on the results will usher in a new era of healthcare that will radically transform the way care is both diagnosed and delivered,” he said.

    Rijpma who is based at Microsoft NZ’s Christchurch office, said the local health tech sector has already been rapidly adopting the public cloud to develop futuristic solutions, but they have not been able to sell those solutions in international markets until now.

    “Now the local health tech sector will be able to use New Zealand as a fertile ground for new innovation and also deliver their world firsts here, too,” he added.

  • APAC telehealth market to hit $1.79b by 2020

    APAC telehealth market to hit $1.79b by 2020

    Increased usage of mobile and broadband internet in the Asia-Pacific region are driving the adoption of new healthcare delivery models, new analysis from Frost & Sullivan shows.

    The research indicates that telehealth is helping to address challenges like rising costs, increasing incidence of chronic and infectious diseases, and ageing populations.

    The telehealth market in the region, which includes telemedicine, remote patient monitoring (RPM) and mobile health (mHealth), is estimated to reach $1.79 billion in 2020 from $1.02 billion in 2015, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12%.

    Telehealth is helping to optimize costs, improve resource efficiency in primary care and aged care, drive medical tourism, and engage the young and healthy population in early intervention, prevention and wellness, the report finds.

    Governments in Asia-Pacific are also playing a significant role in driving technology development and adoption by investing in infrastructure, developing telehealth and eHealth roadmaps and creating policies that directly or indirectly attract investment in health technology.

    At a country level, telecoms are also working with governments to help build Smart Cities and Smart Nation infrastructure with telehealth as a key area almost always included in a Smart City plan. Such projects allow vendors to expand their presence and penetration into strategic industries and also bring in their experience and expertise from other regions to Asia-Pacific.

    However, while the demand for telehealth technologies is strong, vendors and healthcare providers in the region, have not been able to grow their businesses to the aspired scale and volume.

    “A number of pilots have failed to reach commercialization due to poor clinician adoption, an unfavourable regulatory environment and the lack of clarity around payment models,” said Natasha Gulati, Transformational Health Industry Manager, Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific.

    “Establishing a sustainable business model is the single most critical business challenge for market participants today and we are constantly working with our clients to introduce business model innovation in this domain,” she said.

    The report concluded that the region now needs to explore change management strategies that will drive adoption, especially among providers.

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  • Foreign Investment into Tobacco Industry Banned in China

    Foreign Investment into Tobacco Industry Banned in China

    The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has recently issued regulations regarding retail of tobacco products in China. The new regulations stipulate that foreign invested commercial enterprises or individual business households are not permitted to engage in tobacco wholesale or retail business, nor engage in trading of tobacco monopoly products in alternative forms such as franchise, absorption of franchise stores or other re-investment, etc. The Measures for Administration of the Tobacco Monopoly License and Measures for Administration of Shipment Permit of Tobacco Monopoly Products will both become effective as of July 20, 2016.

    Shanghai Issues Notice on the List of Automatic Preferential Tax Policies

    Shanghai Municipal State Tax Bureau and Shanghai Municipal Local Tax Bureau has released a notice outlining and clarifying eight preferential tax policy matters which do not require additional materials to apply for. They are as follows:

    • Deduction/reduction of VAT for purchase of special equipment for the VAT control system.
    • Exemption of small sized and micro profit enterprises from VAT.
    • Exemption of ticket income of science halls, natural museums, science & technology education bases and science & technology education activities from VAT.
    • Exemption/reduction of enterprise income tax on qualified small sized and micro profit enterprises.
    • Accelerated depreciation or remuneration for fixed assets or software purchased.
    • Accelerated depreciation or one-off deduction of fixed assets.
    • Preferential stamp tax during the restructuring process of an enterprise.
    • Preferential stamp tax on loan contracts concluded between small sized and micro enterprises.
    State Council Issues the Guiding Opinions on Cutting Overcapacity in the Non-Ferrous Metal Industry

    The General Office of the State Council issued “Guiding Opinions on Creating a Favorable Market Environment to Promote Structural Adjustment, Transformation and Increases in Benefits in the Non-Ferrous Metal Industry (Opinions),” which addresses dealing with overcapacity problems in the non-ferrous metal industry. The Opinions consists of 15 articles, making detailed directives for key tasks and policy assurance, stressing that work should be done to cut overcapacity and disposal of surplus material in accordance with the laws and regulations, and guide the transfer of non-competitive capacity.

    The Opinions states the key tasks as including: strict control of newly-added capacity and investigation and management of newly-built electrolytic aluminum projects in violation of the regulations; quickening of disposal of excess material, dealing with overcapacity in accordance with the laws and regulations and guiding the transfer of non-competitive capacity; stepping up technological innovation, pushing forward intelligent manufacturing and development of refined processing; expanding market applications, enhancing upstream and downstream cooperation and improving relevant product standards; improving reserves systems; actively promoting international cooperation, etc.

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  • Father’s Day call for men’s health service

    Father’s Day call for men’s health service

    A legislator has called on the government to set up a men’s health-care service that combines physical and psychological treatment to help middle-aged men with sexual health problems.

    Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki, a urology doctor, made the call on Father’s Day.

    Many men aged 30 or above are faced with diseases of the reproductive system, including erectile dysfunction and benign prostatic hyperplasia, Kwok said.

    He noted that there used to be a male health department in Kwong Wah Hospital, a public hospital in Yau Ma Tei, during the 1990s, but the services were withdrawn due to a lack of resources.

    Health-care centers for men are run by the nonprofit Family Planning Association of Hong Kong in Tsuen Wan, Wan Chai and Ma Tau Chung.

    “The male health services provided by the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong are not cheap. A tablet to treat erectile dysfunction could cost up to HK$100. Grassroots citizens may not be able to afford it,” Kwok said.

    While Kwok urged the Hospital Authority to set up male health centers, he also advised the government to integrate counselling services into the men’s health-care services.

    “Most cases of sexual dysfunction in men are caused by psychological problems, such as stress from work and family, and can be treated with sex therapy,” he said.

    Kwok said health clinics with sex therapy services are very common in Europe and America.

    “When men go to see urology doctors in Hong Kong, they can only get assistance on their physical health, but not on their sexual or marriage problems.”

    Kwok suggested the government set up combined clinics, offering, for example, one-stop urology diagnostic services and sex therapies for men.

    Meanwhile, people celebrated the hottest Father’s Day yesterday in 55 years inside air-conditioned malls shopping, boosting retail store sales.

    The Hong Kong Observatory issued the very hot weather warning at around 7am. It recorded a temperature of 34.2 degrees Celsius at around 2pm, making yesterday the hottest Father’s Day since 1961.

    A salesman at electrical goods chainstore Fortress in Tai Koo Shing said the sales volume has increased by 30 percent this year, with most families purchasing mobile phones in the mid- price-range, HK$2,000 to HK$3,000.

    “Although the increase is pretty similar to that of last year, it is still better than that on Mother’s Day,” he added.

    Catering businesses seemed to be benefiting from the day as well.

    House of Canton, a traditional Chinese restaurant at Cityplaza, said the first round of their tables at 6.30pm had been fully booked, with only a few tables left for the second and third rounds.

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  • Telenor launches digital health service in Bangladesh

    Telenor launches digital health service in Bangladesh

    Telenor Health, the digital health unit of the Telenor Group, has introduced a digital health service in Bangladesh.

    The company’s first digital offering, Tonic, is a mobile-based integrated digital service that includes: Tonic Jibon (life), the first Bengali-language services that provides free science-backed information on how to build a healthier and happier life; Tonic Daktar (doctor), which enables members to access medical advice on basic health topics via phone 24 hours a day; Tonic Discounts, which offers exclusive discounts up to 40% on key services at more than 50 popular hospitals across Bangladesh; and Tonic Cash, which provides members compensation if they have been hospitalized for three consecutive nights or more, paid directly to a member’s mobile banking wallet.

    Telenor said the service is being offered in the first phase exclusively to its 57 million Grameenphone customers.

    Bangladesh Health Minister Mohammad Nasim and State Minister of Posts & Telecommunication Tarana Halim attended the official launch in Dhaka.

    “Harnessing technology in order to address basic health challenges is an area of growing interest for Telenor, especially in countries like Bangladesh,” said Sigve Brekke, President and CEO of Telenor Group.

    Telenor has been present in the country since 1997 and now serves more than 185 million customers across Asia. The company established Telenor Health to scale Tonic and other digital health services to other markets upon success in Bangladesh.

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  • Generika Drugstore eyes aggressive local, overseas expansion

    Generika Drugstore eyes aggressive local, overseas expansion

    Generika Drugstore is eying aggressive expansion in the country’s far-flung areas – and possibly abroad into Southeast Asia.

    Generika is country’s third-largest player, half-owned by retail giant Ayala. In 2015 the Ayala group, through its Ayala Healthcare Holdings Inc., acquired 50 per cent of the pharmacy business from cofounder, Frenchman Julien Bello.

    Teodoro Ferrer, president of Generika, said the company plans to boost its 600 stores with 152 more in 2016, and an average of 100 stores annually over the next few years.

    “We need to grow further to more than 1000 stores in less than five years. We also need to focus the product line to include food supplements and also focus on healthcare and wellness, and not just on medicines,” Ferrer said.

    He said the aggressive strategy for a company the size of Generika, founded 12 years ago, could not be compared with opening a branch of a convenience store that sold mostly food and grocery items.

    “You need to have approvals from the local government, from the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]; hire a licensed pharmacist; and then look for the right franchise owner that will take care of your store.”

    Ferrer said the company will put branches in far-flung areas of the country where he believes its services are needed.

    Generika now owns about 42 per cent of its network, since previously it didn’t have the capital to own stores, which cost about P1.2 million to P1.5 million to build. The rest of the stores are operated as franchises.

    “Now that our profit is increasing and Ayala group has come in, we can now expand company-owned stores.”

  • Pfizer doubles its web sales of its health products in China

    Pfizer doubles its web sales of its health products in China

    Online shoppers in China are steadily increasing their purchases of health products, and that offers an opportunity for popular U.S. brands of nutrition supplements. E-commerce sales of Pfizer’s health products, including popular supplements like Caltrate and Centrum, are growing at a more than 100% every year in China, according to Don Kerrigan, Pfizer’s vice president of Global Commercial Excellence & Activation.

    In fact, China has become Pfizer’s second-largest market for health products, exceeded only by the U.S. More than 200 million Chinese consumers have purchased health products from Pfizer, Kerrigan says.

    Many of those consumers purchase Pfizer products online, even though Pfizer does not operate its own e-commerce site in China. Instead, it has been selling since 2012 through an official storefront Tmall in 2012, one of the two giant online shopping portals operated by China’s leading e-commerce company, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Pfizer also sells on JD.com, Alibaba’s leading competitor, and other marketplaces in China, including Yhd.com, which is owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

    Leveraging marketplaces enabled Pfizer to quickly begin selling online in China, Kerrigan says.

    The massive traffic to Alibaba’s online marketplaces in China—those marketplaces, mainly Taobao and Tmall, generated $449 billion in sales in 2015, Alibaba says—means companies like Pfizer can gather a tremendous amount of information quickly about what Chinese consumers like, Kerrigan says. That lets relatively new players like Pfizer test the market and respond quickly.

    “An e-commerce platform like Tmall can provide data on what consumers are buying in different categories,” Kerrigan says. “You can gain insight into what else they’re buying, and how consumers are managing their health or their wellness. That is helpful to us in how we build out broader solutions for consumers.”

    While many overseas brands employ e-commerce service providers to manage their web sales in China, Pfizer relies on its own 17-person team in China.

    The explosive growth of online shopping in China can make it difficult for brands like Pfizer to anticipate demand. Kerrigan says his business ran out of stock within hours of the beginning of the annual Singles’ Day online sale last Nov. 11.Alibaba says its Singles’ Day 2015 sales grew 60% over the 2014 event to $14.3 billion.

    Pricing is another issue as some merchants or individuals sell a brand’s products at low prices on China’s big web marketplaces. To differentiate itself from these sellers, Pfizer has developed specific products to sell only through e-commerce channels in China.

     

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  • Merck foresees healthy growth ahead in Indonesia

    Merck foresees healthy growth ahead in Indonesia

    Publicly listed Merck, founded in 1970 as the Indonesian unit of German life science group Merck KGaA, expects double-digit growth in total sales in 2016 following a similar growth in its healthcare business last year.

    The biopharma business, for example, rose by 14.5% in 2015, above the industry average of 8% to 9%. On the other hand, the consumer health business soared by 16%, according to the Jakarta Post.

    The Indonesia unit will also strengthen its current strategy of maintaining partnerships with both private and government organizations such as the Health Ministry and the Jakarta Administration, through which Merck will expand public awareness about health issues, encourage public acceptance and broaden market access for Merck’s pharmaceutical products.

    Merck is also currently expanding the production capacity of its factory in TB Simatupang, South Jakarta, to further boost future sales.

    These and other key industry news will be discussed next week at CPhI SEA, the only trade exhibition dedicated to the pharma industry in the region, to be held at the Jakarta International Expo during April 6-8.

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  • AS Watson opens global flagship

    AS Watson opens global flagship

    AS Watson Group has opened its 12,000th store worldwide – in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay.

    Perhaps fittingly, the store is a three-storey flagship, at 8000 sqft, the brand’s largest store in Hong Kong.

    Located on Yun Ping Rd, the new store features the latest Watsons store design concept internationally, a blend of “contemporary and elegant style”.

    “As an all-rounded health and beauty store, the flagship store provides customers with over 8300 unique products, including 840 healthcare and beauty brands of which 250 are Watsons exclusives,” the company said in a statement.

    The wide selection of products are categorised into different themes, such as organic skincare products, derma cosmetics, baby care area, men’s care area and health checks. Pharmaceutical and beauty consulting services, in-store nursery room and mobile charging stations are available to provide comprehensive customer services.

    At the store’s opening ceremony, Li Tzar Kuoi, Victor, the co-MD and deputy chairman of Watson’s parent CK Hutchison’s Group said Hong Kong has a special place in the company’s heart.

    “Last year, AS Watson Group opened and refitted 76 retail stores in Hong Kong; and for this year, the number is expected to amount to over 80. The capital investment involved would be approximately HK$620 million over these two years,” Li said.

    “We will continue to invest in the city. ”

    Founded back in 1941 as a small dispensary, the AS Watson Group was the 14th company to register in Hong Kong. Now it is the world’s largest international health and beauty retailer and one of the world’s fastest-growing retailers. Watson plans to open 1300 new stores around the world in 2015 – nearly three per day.

    Fortune Centre Watsons Hong Kong Flagship Store has the widest selection of natural & organic skin care products of nine international brands, including the Anumi, a well-known Australian brand with international organic certification, and American brand Burt’s Bees.

    Derma cosmetic products from 12 brands are on sale, including the French cosmetic brands Uriage and Filorga, which will have their exclusive counter, and Watsons’ exclusive brands such as Skin Advanced, CNP. Customers can also enjoy skin analysis and derma cosmetics consulting services.

    A wide range of cosmetic brands, including Clio, Luna and Peripera, etc, from Korea will be exclusively offered in this biggest cosmetic zone among all Watsons stores. Nail brands like Sally Hansen and Depend 7Day will also be available here. Customers can even enjoy makeup or manicure services.

    The Baby Zone offers a large variety of baby products, ranging from diapers, baby wipes, milk powders, etc, giving babies full care and protection. The Men’s Zone offers men’s grooming and health products selections of 14 brands, including Men’s Biore, L’Oréal Men Expert and Za Men, which is a Watson’s exclusive.

    As the Asia’s largest health and beauty retailer, Watsons aims to make customers ‘Look Good, Feel Great’. Nine professionals, including two pharmacists, one dispenser, three health and fitness advisors and three beauty consultants will station in-store to provide customers with professional health consulting and assessment services, such as the Ultrasound Bone Density test as well as measurements for blood pressure and BMI (Body Mass Index).

    The Flagship Store provides customer services such as free wireless internet access, mobile charging stations, baby nursing room, and washrooms.

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