2 Japanese medical firms expand in PH

Published 2:31 PM, January 01, 2015

Medical product manufacturers Tokai and JMS choose the Lopez-led First Philippine Industrial Park in Batangas as site for their expansion efforts

MANILA, Philippines – The new year 2015 opens with investment news, as two of Japan’s major medical product manufacturers selected Lopez-led First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP) in Santo Tomas, Batangas as the location for their Philippine expansion projects.

Through their respective subsidiaries, Tokai Medical Products (TMP) and JMS Company Ltd. (JMS) signed contracts with FPIP for the lease of areas within the 442-hectare economic zone in Batangas.

Tokai’s plant within FPIP will be its first outside Japan. The company’s new plant in FPIP will manufacture medical catheters for export to Japan and the US. The medical catheters, such as aortic catheters and intra-aortic occlusion catheters, are products for heart disease patients.

Tokai’s local unit will start constructing its factory in January, and move to commercial operations in October 2015.

Tokai is a medical engineering company based in Nagoya, Japan. It is internationally known in the field, especially for cardiac-related diseases.

The JMS plant within FPIP will be its first in the Philippines. JMS Healthcare Phl Inc. will manufacture and assemble medical devices and disposables, such as infusion sets, from FPIP for export to Japan, Europe, and Latin America. JMS also operates facilities in China, Singapore, and Indonesia.

JMS, which started building its factory within FPIP, expects to go on commercial operations in the first quarter of 2016.

Headquartered in Hiroshima, Japan, JMS develops devices for health care sectors including home health care systems, hospital equipment systems, and medical information systems.

Both companies recently conducted their respective ground-breaking ceremonies within FPIP with Lilia de Lima, director-general of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), as guest of honor.

Tokai and JMS join a growing list of FPIP big-named locators, industry movers like B/E Aerospace, Brother, Canon, Honda, Ibiden, Murata, Nestlé, Philip Morris, Shimano, and Sunpower.

FPIP, meanwhile, is a 70-30 joint venture between First Philippine Holdings Corporation, the holding company of the Lopez Group, and Sumitomo Corporation, one of Japan’s biggest conglomerates.

Early in 2014, FPIP received government approval for its 92-hectare expansion plan, called FPIP Special Economic Zone II. – Rappler.com