Crown Pharma-ceuticals and Research Laboratories Limited, a subsidiary of Polypack Limited, has invested $24 million (about K4 billion, at the present official exchange rate) in a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant.
The plant is on a 10-acre piece of land at Maone Park in Blantyre.
Polypack Limited group chief executive officer Vijay Kumar said on Wednesday the company, to bring the number of drug manufacturing companies in Malawi to five, will create jobs for about 700 Malawians.
He was speaking in Blantyre on the sidelines of the launch of one of Crown’s first productsâ€â€Crown’s insecticide- treated mosquito nets.
Kumar said the construction of the manufacturing facility is currently in progress and the first phase will be completed by September 2012, with the second phase by December 2013.
He said the machines have already been ordered and are in transit.
In a year, the machinery will be producing 1.38 billion tablets, 125 million capsules, 16 million liquid orals and 30 million ointments in the non-betalactum division.
The group CEO also said discussions are currently underway with pharmaceutical companies gone outside the country for a technical collaboration activity to set up an antiretroviral (ARV) plant in the country.
