Egyptian International Pharmaceutical Industries Co (Eipico), Egypt's biggest drug exporter, plans to increase its exports to 35 per cent of its production by 2015, its chairman said.

It will also bring on stream a new EGP400 million ($72.9 million) drug factory by August 2010 that will raise production capacity by 10 percent in its first year of operation, chairman Ahmed Borhan Ismail told Reuters in an interview.

"I want foreign currency because we import raw material and we import packaging material," Ismail said, adding that imports constitute 35 per cent of the company's production costs.

The drug factory will be built on 30,000 sq m of land and will be financed in full by the company, he said.

Eipico wants its exports to earn it 300 million pounds a year by 2015. It now exports 20 percent of its products, earning it 200 million pounds annually, Ismail said.

Eipico makes about 220 generic drugs and exports to 50 countries, including the UK and Saudi Arabia. It also produces for multinationals such as Switzerland's Roche Holding and the US' Allergan.

The company now makes 160 million glass ampoules a year, and is looking to start exporting these too, Ismail said.

"I'm drawing up an export plan ... where I find a market, I'll appoint a delegate to present the product and begin advertising," he said.

Eipico's nine month net profit rose 14.7 per cent to EGP215.9 million from the same period a year earlier.

Price policies

Asked about the impact of the global financial crisis on his business, Ismail said: "In Egypt in general ... I don't think medicine and medical consumption were affected."

He said the pharmaceutical industry was hindered by government control of local drug prices, as the prices are often not adjusted for inflation, currency devaluations and the rising costs of imported raw materials.

Egypt sets drug prices to make them affordable to the public. According to the UN, one fifth of Egypt's population lives on less than $1 a day.

"You take a medicine for a week and pay 3 pounds - how?" said Ismail. "Is the dollar fixed? Is labour fixed? Are electricity prices fixed? Is anything fixed today?"

The government invited Eipico and three other Egyptian pharmaceutical companies to produce generic Tamiflu, the drug used to treat the H1N1 virus, but Ismail said he will not produce it because the price was set too low. – Reuters