IC Asia began construction on the Dong 103 billion ($7.32 million) pharmaceutical plant, located in Binh Doong Province's Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Zone, becoming the country's largest investor in the field. The plant was completed by the end of 2000, and operational from early 2001. A highly successful distributor of medical products in Vietnam over the last five years, IC Asia is venturing into manufacturing medicines for the first time.

ICA LABORATORIESICA
Laboratories is a production company under the umbrella of the IC Asia group. The company built a pharmaceutical factory including warehouse, laboratories and offices in the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) a little north of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT TIMESCALE
At the end of 1999 the conceptual design for the facility was completed and the company was ready to proceed with detailed design. IC Asia started construction in March 2000, ended construction and commissioning in December 2000 and was able to ship the first products in the spring of year 2001.

HBP DESIGN TEAM
The design team consists of a joint venture between Hong Bang and Pegasus called HBP, which carried out architectural design and project management. Meinhardt Ltd carried out civil and structural engineering, and the Kaizen Total Quality Management Group Ltd, acted as cGMP consultants.

FACILITY STANDARDS
The entire facility was designed to be in compliance with international standards of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) by US FDA, TGA and PIC. The quality systems of the facility will at the same time be in accordance with ISO 9000.

FACILITY PRODUCTION
The output of the factory will be a wide range of pharmaceutical items for the domestic as well as export markets. Initial output will be 300 million units per year, with the potential to increase to a full production capacity of over 1 billion units per year.