DTI, AstraZeneca to develop Pharma Innovation Hub
The government is partnering with the local subsidiary of multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to develop the Pharma Innovation Hub.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the collaboration through the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Philippines Inc. aims to boost health-care innovation and expand access to affordable medicines nationwide.
The agency has yet to disclose the location of the planned hub.
Quoting AstraZeneca Asia Area vice president Sylvia Varela, the DTI said AstraZeneca would invest more than P7 billion in the country in the next few years, part of which will go to the multistakeholder health innovation hub.
“The Pharma Innovation Hub shows what we can achieve when global expertise meets local commitment,” Trade Secretary Cristina Roque said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This partnership with AstraZeneca and Peza is a big step toward President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s goal of making medicines more affordable and accessible, while also laying the foundation for the Philippines to become a hub for research, digital health, and new medical investments,” added Roque.
This will serve as a regional center for digital health technology, research and development collaboration and patient-centered health-care solutions. The hub’s maiden project will be an Oncology Innovation Center, fashioned after AstraZeneca’s pharma hub in the United Kingdom. It will utilize artificial intelligence for early cancer detection, expand patient-support systems, build health-care workforce capacity and promote evidence-based policy development.
AstraZeneca will support the country’s investment promotion drive by holding business forums, investment briefings, business-to-business matchmaking sessions and international delegations to attract local and foreign health care-related investments.
For its part, Peza will help AstraZeneca identify strategic ecozone locations for its projects, assist with regulatory processes and connect the company with support industries and potential joint venture partners.
Peza Director General Tereso Panga said the latest venture will boost the agency’s goal of building more medical-centered ecozones or Pharma zones.
“We want to attract more companies that are into development, manufacturing and research in the medical field in order to create a value chain that will lead to the lowering of cost of medicines for Filipinos,” Panga said.
“We have already established the first Pharma Ecozone and this with AstraZeneca is another momentous event towards achieving our conjoined objectives,” Panga added.
So far, more than 50 manufacturers and medical device companies, including Terumo Philippines, Merck Business Solutions, JMS Healthcare and Royale Life Pharma, are operating in Peza zones nationwide.
The DTI said the pharmaceutical sector was one of the fastest-growing industries in the country, with more than 14 multinational pharma companies.
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