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Imports Supply Cambodia’s Medical Needs
Medical supplies are almost always imported from overseas and
several companies in Phnom Penh are active in this area.
Mega Products Ltd on Norodom Boulevard is part of the G. Premjee
Group of Thailand and has been active in Cambodia since 1996. It
supplies pharmacies, hospitals and clinics throughout the kingdom.
Among the manufacturers represented by Mega are Janssen
Pharmaceutica, a Belgian organization; Takeda of Japan; B. Braun,
makers of hospital products in Germany; German surgical instrument
maker Aesculap; the Indian pharmaceuticals concern Ranbaxy; Boots
Healthcare of Britain; the US-based multinational Warner Lambert;
and the American babycare products giant, Johnson & Johnson.
Mega’s commitment extends to helping Cambodian healthcare
professionals extend their knowledge and the corporation has
sponsored three midwives to attend a seminar in Thailand and two
dermatologists to attend a conference in Indonesia. The company
helped sponsor the National HIV/AIDS Conference last year and funded
the National Conference on Anesthesia, the first to be held in
Cambodia.
In 1990, a decree from the Council of Ministers established Medico
Trading Pte Ltd, Cambodia, a private entity created with the aim of
importing approved, analyzed and inspected products from overseas.
“There is no first quality or second quality product; Medico
imports only first quality pharmaceutical products,” says a
company mission statement. Almost all—98 percent—of Medico’s
imports come from France, although a few products are brought in
from Canada, South Korea and Malaysia.
A point of pride at Medico is the quality of its warehouses.
Refrigerated storage spaces and careful monitoring of the expiry
dates on medications are priorities for the company. Every year,
Medico destroys stale medications, to the tune of $31,000 in 1995,
$50,000 in 1996, and $21,000 in 1997 and again in 1998.
The company’s close links to the Ministry of Health and the World
Health Organization result in Medico taking an advocacy role in the
health concerns of Cambodians. The company publicizes the need to
have disease diagnosed by a qualified physician, rather than
informally by a pharmacist, and urges patients: “Please do not
play with your health.”
—Elizabeth Wright
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