A money-spinner in our backyard
Novalab’s set up their own retail outlets to market their herbal products.
Malaysia has many herbs and plants just waiting to be discovered for an industry that can generate jobs for researchers and the rural folks alike.
PHARMACIST Phang Nyie Lin knew he was on the brink of an exciting innovation in herbal development when his brother-in-law, who was diagnosed with liver hepatitis, was cured of his ailment a month after taking an unknown herb from India.
He was excited to discover that the herb, scientifically known as Phyllanthus Niruri, can be found here in Malaysia and is a popular traditional medicine among the Malays. Called Dukung Anak locally, the juice of the plant is believed to cure a range of ailments from yellow fever and anaemia to diabetes.
But Phang, who is managing director of herbal pharmaceutical company Nova Laboratories Sdn Bhd (NovaLab), was more interested in its potential as a cure for Hepatitis-B and liver protection, and wasted no time in starting research on the then experimental herbal medicine.
That was in 1997. The phyllantus herb is now available as Hepar-P capsules in the market.
“We have sold more than 26 million capsules, and the liver health herbal product is now in the second phase of clinical trials,” says NovaLab spokesperson Nicholas Cheong.
NovaLab took more than seven years of intensive research and development (R&D) to develop Hepar-P but Cheong believes it would have taken them longer if they had not acquired the BioNexus Status, which is awarded to qualified companies that undertake value-added biotechnology activities by the government through its agency BiotechCorp.
“With all the incentives and funds under the BioNexus Status award, it has made the process easier. We were able to patent Hepar-P in 2007 and 2009 and get it into the market earlier than planned,” says Cheong.
As he explains, herbal medicine is a highly regulated industry where restriction and control from government is stringent “because we are dealing with people’s health and well-being.”
“The BioNexus status has facilitated the bureaucratic process with government agencies. This allows us to focus on R&D and marketing instead of spending time and manpower on the red tape,” shares Cheong.
With some research funding and the tax incentive under the BioNexus status, Nova Lab was able to invest in R&D.
“R&D investment can go up to millions of ringgit in the herbal medicine industry so the RM1mil research funding we got and tax rebate were helpful as we were able to put the money back into the company and invest in the latest research equipment.
“One research can take up many years and sometimes at the end of it, you don’t get the therapeutic compounds that you are looking for. With the right and state-of-the-art equipment, we were able to speed up the research time and cover any losses incurred by waste of time and manpower,” says Cheong, adding that it has spurred R&D on new indigenous herb products.
Their top bestsellers after Hepar-P include a complete nutrition and balance, low glycemic drink, slow-release glucosamine, and high absorption double strength fish oil soft gel.
He highlights that there are more than 2,000 forest species in Malaysia with identified medicinal value and many more undiscovered herbs and plants. Sadly, though, 65% of the raw herbs used here are imported. “We need to start sourcing local raw herbs, which can generate jobs for the rural folks, especially in herb planting. And once the herbal products get accredited, it will create other jobs such as researchers and marketers.”
Through BiotechCorp, they have been able to connect with local planters says Cheong.
NovaLab now has more than 50 herbal products in the market and plans to expand their herbal beauty products and artery health.
To market their homegrown herbal products, NovaLab does not only rely on the local network of retail pharmacies, they have also opened their own retail outlets around the Klang valley.
“Our retail outlets are an integration of NovaLab’s R&D and marketing endeavours. A lot of the time, you have a good product that is well researched but you cannot get it out there. This is a good way of reaching out to the customers and distributing the products,” says Cheong.
“We have three outlets now with the fourth and fifth scheduled to open at the end of this year,” he says, adding that they hope to expand nationwide in the near future.
The retail outlets also act as education hubs on herbal medicine and health supplements where NovaLab have hired pharmacists and nutritionists to answer consumers’ enquires and concerns.
“Many Malaysians are not aware of the use and benefits of herbal medicine. Many also still think that Malaysian products are inferior,” he explains.
NovaLab is also working to explore new markets, both domestic and foreign.
“BiotechCorp has assisted us by ‘matchmaking’ us with prospective overseas partners and publicising our products,” says Cheong. He hopes the government could raise public awareness on the benefits of herbal medicine further to boost the industry as it is worth billions with a lot of prospects globally. It is expected to increase by three folds from RM777bil in 2009 to more than RM2tril by 2020.
“There is so much room to grow in the herbal medicine industry but there are still not many players in Malaysia. BiotechCorp is doing a lot to connect the different stakeholders in the industry as well as build an ecosystem to boost the local herbal medicine production, and more can be done,” says Cheong.
