Company spends Lm13m to upgrade production

Pharmamed, a pharmaceutical company in Bulebel, yesterday inaugurated upgraded production facilities that have cost Lm13 million.

Finance Minister John Dalli commented that the upgrade will enable the company to manufacture products in line with EU standards.

"This is what the EU is all about. Improved standards, expanded markets. Thanks to the investment that Pharmamed has made in its production facilities it can now tap the EU market," Mr Dalli said.

He stressed that local competitiveness was not based on cheap labour and Malta could not compete with low income countries such as the Maghreb region.

"Malta's comparative advantage is based on the ability of the Maltese worker to learn and adapt to new technologies. Maltese workers are flexible, attain high quality standards and are highly skilled. The language skills of Maltese are also highly appreciated," he said.

Malta's industrial policy encouraged the setting up of high value added sectors, such as the pharmaceutical sector, in order to reconcile improved standards of living with industrial competitiveness, he said.

Mr Dalli stressed that workers had to understand that their quality of life would be directly affected by the level of productivity which, in turn, determined the level of competitiveness.

"It is important that we are not distracted from the longer term objectives by short-term gains," Mr Dalli said.

Present for yesterday's ceremony, which marked completion of the first phase of the upgrading programme, were representatives of some of Europe's leading pharmaceutical companies that are considering placing orders with the company.

Pharmamed has just started production for the Danish and German markets.

Pharmamed is a subsidiary of the Pharmaco Group, a multinational pharmaceutical organisation employing over 6,000 people in 14 countries.

The Malta company, which employs 250, has a production capacity of over 1.5 billion tablets per year and is planning to supply most of Pharmaco's European markets.

The company was granted approval by the UK's medicine and healthcare regulatory agency at the end of the first phase of the upgrade and meets the quality and regulatory requirements of the European Union.