Ministry revokes Pharmaniaga’s licence

Ministry revokes Pharmaniaga’s licence
By FINTAN NG

fintan@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry’s pharmaceutical services division has revoked the manufacturing licence of Pharmaniaga Manufacturing Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pharmaniaga Bhd, after a routine audit of the Bangi plant.

The company told Bursa Malaysia yesterday that the revocation was effective from March 1.

Pharmaniaga managing director Mohamad Abdullah told StarBiz over the phone that the ministry found a few non-compliance issues that the firm was now working to expedite.

He said the ministry officials would be returning “very soon” for another round of audit but would not say when this would take place.

“For something like this, we’re hoping that the plant will not be closed longer than a week as this will affect our suppliers,” Mohamad said.

In the announcement, Pharmaniaga said manufacturing contributed approximately 10% to the company’s turnover based on financial year ended Dec 31, 2009 (FY09) results.

“As such, the cessation of production is not expected to have a significant financial impact as the other business lines are not affected and the company believes it will be able to address the audit issues within a relatively short time,” it added.

For FY09, the company posted a net profit of RM60.19mil on revenue of RM1.30bil while for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2009, the company posted a net profit of RM21.91mil on revenue of RM323.90mil.

Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, the company said its major shareholder UEM Group Bhd was evaluating options with regard to meeting the public spread requirement of Pharmaniaga by March 29.