2 Japanese medical products makers to open plants in FPIP

MANILA, Philippines–Two leading Japanese medical products manufacturers have selected Lopez-led First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP) in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, as site for their respective expansion projects in the country.

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

Tokai Medical Products Philippines will make the new plant in FPIP its platform for manufacturing medical catheters for export to Japan and the United States.

TMP’s plant in FPIP will be its first outside Japan. The medical catheters, such as aortic catheters and intra-aortic occlusion catheters, are products that assist heart disease patients.

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. The JMS plant within FPIP will be its first in the Philippines. JMS also operates facilities in China, Singapore, Indonesia.

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

TMP’s local unit will start constructing its factory in January 2015 and commence commercial operations in October 2015. JMS, which has started building its factory within FPIP, expects to go on commercial operations in the first quarter of 2016.

TMP is a leading medical engineering company that continues to research and develop new medical products. Based in Nagoya, Japan, TMC is an internationally respected company in the field, especially for cardiac-related diseases.

Headquartered in Hiroshima, Japan, JMS develops devices for a wide range of healthcare sectors including, home healthcare systems, hospital equipment system and medical information systems. Its revenues amounted to 53.86 billion yen in March 2014, up from 49.06 billion yen a year earlier.

JMS and TMP join a growing list of FPIP locators that are recognized as leaders in their industries such as B/E Aerospace, Brother, Canon, Honda, Ibiden, Murata, Nestle, Philip Morris, Shimano, and Sunpower.

FPIP is a 70-30 joint venture between First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH), a holding company of the Lopez Group; and Sumitomo Corporation, one of Japan’s biggest conglomerates. Early this year, FPIP received government approval for its 92-hectare expansion plan, called FPIP Special Economic Zone II.