Biopharmaceutical companies worldwide provide technological and medical aid through equipment and products for consumption to improve or alleviate ailments among communities and individuals. Besides catering to the high demands for drugs, these companies also play a major role in designing drugs and vaccines to fight against rare diseases or ailments that could cost the lives of people. Here, Top 10 of Malaysia shares its pick of top 10 biopharmaceutical companies (arranged in random order) that have set up offices in Malaysia and also in many other countries with some listed in Bursa Malaysia.
Solution Group Berhad
Solution Group Berhad (SGB) provides engineering solutions and it is a listed company in Bursa Malaysia. The company designs and develops equipment and pilot plants for engineering education and research, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as offers telemetry and automation solutions. SGB and its subsidiaries (“Solution Group”) focus on two core activities which are engineering and biopharma and healthcare. Its biopharma and healthcare subsidiaries include Solution Bioforce Sdn Bhd that specialises in biotechnology and pharmaceutical and provides engineering solutions, design or development of biopharma equipments, One Green Solution Sdn Bhd that specialises in wellness and lifestyle with its products marketed under the brand Sollife and a newly incorporated company called Solution Biologics Sdn Bhd that undertakes the supply of vaccines and biologics.
Roche
As a pioneer in healthcare, Roche is committed to improving lives since the company was founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland. Roche has been present in Malaysia since the 1950s, when the sales and distribution of products were managed by a third party distributor. Since then, Roche has established its operations to include Roche (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, the pharmaceutical business, Roche Diagnostics (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Roche Services (Asia Pacific) Sdn Bhd, the shared service centre. With a total staff strength of over 900, Roche has grown into one of the leading healthcare companies in Malaysia that provides holistic healthcare solutions to healthcare practitioners and patients. Roche has offices worldwide.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a British multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Brentford, England with many offices globally. It has been operating in Malaysia for over 60 years, since starting its first operations in 1958. In the last six decades, GSK Malaysia has grown substantially both in its infrastructure, business operations as well as talent base. Currently operating with over 1,000 employees across its four business entities – pharmaceuticals and vaccines, consumer healthcare, business service centres and consumer healthcare quality supply chain. Its pharmaceutical products cover a broad spectrum of vaccines and major therapeutic areas such as allergy, anti-infectives, central nervous system, dermatology, respiratory, urology as well as specialty care products. Its consumer healthcare products range includes supplements, over-the-counter (OTC) medicines as well as oral healthcare products.
Emma Walmsley, CEO of GSK
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca has many offices all around the globe and it is an innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialisation of prescription medicines, primarily for the treatment of cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, inflammation, autoimmune, oncology, infection and neuroscience diseases. It is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of $27.97 billion. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index. In Malaysia, it is currently one of the top pharmaceutical companies.
Pfizer
Pfizer works to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of its time. Consistent with its responsibility as one of the world’s premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, it collaborates with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. Pfizer Malaysia began operations in 1964 and it has 500 colleagues in nine offices throughout the country and many offices worldwide.
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is one of the world’s largest and most broad-based healthcare company that strives to improve access and affordability, create healthier communities, and put a healthy mind, body and environment within reach of everyone, everywhere. It has an office in Malaysia and many offices worldwide with more than 130,000 employees across the world and besides manufacturing and selling healthcare and baby products, it also distributes pharmaceutical and medical products. It is also in the process of manufacturing a vaccine for Covid-19.
Boehringer Ingelheim
C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Ko. KG is the parent company of the Boehringer Ingelheim group, which was founded in 1885 by Albert Boehringer in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. As of 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies with many offices globally and in Malaysia, and also one of the largest private ones. Boehringer Ingelheim BioXcellence™ is one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical contract manufacturers. It offers tailor-made contract development and manufacturing services to the biopharmaceutical industry.
Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies is a leader in life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical markets with offices all over the world and in Malaysia. The company provides laboratories worldwide with instruments, services, consumables, applications and expertise, enabling customers to gain the insights they seek. Agilent’s expertise and trusted collaboration give them the highest confidence in its solutions. It also serves the pharmaceutical industry and provide solutions for every segment of the pharmaceutical industry, from disease research and drug discovery to drug development, manufacturing and quality control.
Mike McMullen, CEO of Agilent Technologies
Novo Nordisk
For almost 100 years, Novo Nordisk has been translating the unmet medical needs of people living with a serious chronic disease into innovative medicines and delivery systems, like its insulin pens. With many offices globally and in Malaysia, the company’s treatments today are benefiting millions of people living with diabetes, obesity and rare blood and endocrine diseases. From its labs to factory floors, Novo is discovering and developing innovative biological medicines and making them accessible to patients throughout the world.
Merck & Co.
For more than 125 years, Merck & Co. (known as MSD outside of the U.S. and Canada) has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases in pursuit of our mission to save and improve lives. The company demonstrates its commitment to patients and population health by increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, it continues to be at the forefront of research to prevent and treat diseases that threaten people and animals – including cancer, infectious diseases, such as HIV and Ebola, and emerging animal diseases. It has 71,000 employees and offices worldwide including in Malaysia.
