Leading drug firm to list on bourse

The Hau Giang Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (HG.PHARM) will begin listing shares on the HCM City Securities Trading Centre today.

HG.PHARM plans to list VND227.4 billion worth of shares. Executives have indicated that shares have been trading at VND165,000 a piece on the over-the-counter market.

According to industry insiders, HG.PHARM is the leading pharmaceutical company in the local market. In 2005, company recorded VND493 billion in revenue, 10 per cent of the market’s overall turnover.

HG.PHARM last year also became the first company to produce two new lines of antibiotics: Haginat and Klamentin.

The drugs accounted for 6.37 per cent of HG.PHARM’s total turnover, according to executives.

Hapacol, a sedative and antipyretic, also sold well last year, accounting for 6.47 per cent of the company’s revenue.

Executives noted extracts from medicinal herbs, especially the drug Choliver, contributed to the company’s strong financial position in 2005. These products comprised more than half of company’s total export earnings. HG.PHARM supplies drugs to 98 per cent of general hospitals and health centres across the country, and is the only local pharmaceutical company that has a nationwide distribution network.

HG.PHARM plans to open a new 31,661sq.m pharmaceutical factory that meets international standards next to its main headquarters by 2010.

"We’re now taking the lead among pharmaceutical producers, but we will continue to invest to enhance our competitiveness and capacity in the coming years," said Pham Thi Viet Nga, the company’s chairwoman of the board.

The total turnover in the domestic drug industry is expected to reach VND8 trillion in 2008, said the Ministry of Health’s Pharmaceutical Management Department.