Premium International secures $ 30 m Laugfs pharmaceutical contract

From left: Laugfs Holdings Managing Director Thilak De Silva, Laugfs Holdings Chairman W.K.H. Wegapitiya, Premium International Managing Director/CEO Prasantha Kularatna and Premium International Director Operations Nigel Forbes 

National Business Excellence Gold Award winner and Sri Lanka’s only integrated healthcare solutions provider, Premium International Ltd. secured the prestigious Laugfs pharmaceutical  contract for the setting up of Sri Lanka’s most advanced and largest pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. 

The project which aims to revolutionise the local pharma manufacturing industry will be the first facility in the country to be certified according to international standards such as EU GMP, cGMP and WHO GMP requirements. The Laugfs pharma venture is expected to bring multiple benefits to the national economy and is considered a pioneering initiative undertaken by two local companies to open gateways to the trillion dollar global pharmaceutical business annually.

In a simple ceremony held at the Laugfs head office at Colombo 4, the agreement between the two parties was signed recently. Speaking at the occasion, Laugfs Holdings Ltd. Chairman W.K.H. Wegapitiya highlighted the importance of identifying the right technical partner for a project of this magnitude since this project goes beyond satisfying the commercial needs of Laugfs and aims to address a national cause. He also thanked Premium for taking the initiative to conceptualise and develop the project from its initiation with Laugfs. 

Laugfs Holdings Ltd. Managing Director Thilak De Silva whilst wishing the new venture impressed up on the fact that this was the first time that Laugfs is entering in to the lucrative healthcare industry and that they were bullish on many other opportunities available within the industry given the rapidly ageing population and increase in non-communicable diseases within the country.

Premium International will lead a global team of decorated pharma experts and veteran organisations in the field from Australia, Germany, India, Finland and Indonesia which has come together as a consortium to take up this challenging and complex project. Speaking at the event, Premium International MD/ CEO Prasantha Kularatna confirmed that what will be invaluable to the nation at the end of the project will be the knowledge and the technology transfer that would have materialised to the hundreds of local engineers and technical experts by having the exposure and the opportunity to work with this kind of global pharma experts, a feat that had never taken place in the country before. 

“Premium will be responsible for design and engineering, contract administration, integrated technology supply, regulatory, formulation support and complete project management, basically it’s an end to end solution,” he further stated.

Premium International, a multiple award winner for entrepreneurship and business excellence is an ISO 9001-2008 certified entity and is Sri Lanka’s only turnkey healthcare solutions provider. The company has accumulated an illustrious portfolio of prestigious projects in both the public and private sector, working with various stakeholders. Some of the key highlights have been their constant ability to introduce cutting edge technology to the healthcare industry and the innovative projects they have successfully completed over the past decade.