Sunshine Healthcare Lanka (SHL), the healthcare arm of the diversified conglomerate Sunshine Holdings PLC (CSE: SUN), officially commenced the operations of its subsidiary, Lina Spiro (Pvt) Ltd, Sri Lanka’s first Metered-Dose Inhaler (MDI) manufacturing plant in Kadawatha today.
The State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals, Prof. Channa Jayasumana ceremoniously declared open the facility in the presence of senior officials from Sunshine Holdings, Akbar Brothers, National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC), Medical Supplies Division (MSD), State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC) and other public and private healthcare institutions.
The state-of-the-art factory, which has a qualified and experienced staff manufacturing a line of Respiratory Care Products, is the only GMP certified manufacturer of MDI products in Sri Lanka. Lina Spiro is the latest pharmaceutical plant by Lina Manufacturing which has been engaged in this sector for over 10 years and is a successful local manufacturer supplying a large variety of respiratory products to the Government sector and private sector.
Lina has pioneered the development of local respiratory products, with its patented Repsiratory Inhaler Device, and continues to invest significantly in R&D to introduce more products. Lina Manufacturing has investing significantly in the latest European tablet production lines from IMA Italy, a world leader in pharmaceutical automation technologies.
In December 2020, Sunshine Holdings announced its healthcare business’s strategic merger consisting of Sunshine Healthcare Lanka and Healthguard Pharmacy with Akbar Pharmaceuticals, Lina Manufacturing and Lina Spiro—the business units of Akbar Healthcare. The merger’s finalisation elevates Sunshine Healthcare as Sri Lanka’s first fully integrated healthcare company, starting from manufacturing up to retailing healthcare products, including last-mile distribution across the country for all healthcare products. The company will be now operating in all five segments of the healthcare supply chain, namely research and development (R&D), manufacturing, importation, distribution and retail.
Commenting on the occasion, Sunshine Healthcare Lanka Managing Director Shyam Sathasivam said, “For Sunshine Healthcare to become Sri Lanka’s first end-to-end healthcare company is a significant milestone. The merger helps us set up our cutting-edge manufacturing capabilities in line with the Government’s objectives, which seeks to reduce the country’s reliance on pharmaceutical imports, while creating a robust platform to provide more skilled employment opportunities for the local talent pool.”
This merger will also enhance the pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in the country with both leading business groups working together to invest in this critical nation-building sector. By combining their strengths, the merged healthcare business will be able to build further manufacturing capacity as well as develop and scale up production of existing and new molecules, work with regional pharma companies to drive tech transfers and overall increase the local production of medicines as envisaged by His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka’s Vision ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’.