Pharmaceutical firm planning to expand

Metallform (Malta) Ltd, which makes intravenous sets for babies, is planning to expand its operation, general manager Ian Restall told the prime minister when he visited the factory yesterday.

Since April, the company's products have been on the National Health Service catalogue in the UK, which should further increase exports, Mr Restall said.

The company, whose factory is in Hal Far, specialises in the assembly of sterile, disposable infusion and filter lines for paediatric use. It said it had registered a rise in productivity and in sales.

Originally, its products were sold in Germany and Austria, but the company has added the UK to its list and has distributors in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jordan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates.

Last year, Metallform (Malta) exported over 3.5 million sets and is expecting to export four million by the end of 2002.

Set up in 1992, the company, a subsidiary of German Metallform GmbH, first employed 16 workers. It now employs 64.

The products are manufactured in a clean-room environment in which the air is recycled six times an hour.

Metallform's expansion plans have been approved by the Malta Development Corporation, whose chairman, Lawrence Zammit, said the health care sector gave a high return on costs. He said foreign health care companies were interested in Malta, particularly due to the abilities of the Maltese, and the MDC was focusing on the sector.

Mr Zammit said the company had found Maltese workers were more productive than their German counterparts, learnt fast and boasted manual dexterity,

He said the company had maintained that coming to Malta was one of its best decisions.