KUALA LUMPUR: US-based healthcare company, Abbott, has opened a US$60 million manufacturing plant in Kedah to produce intraocular lenses (IOLs) that are used to restore a person’s vision after cataract surgery.
In a statement today, Abbott said, the plant, in Kulim Hi-Tech Park, was its first manufacturing investment in Malaysia and sole facility in the country focused on manufacturing IOLs.
“The 160,000 sq ft plant will have about 500 employees. It will use the same process, equipment, materials and quality standards as our intraocular lens manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands and Puerto Rico.
“With the addition of new manufacturing lines and technology in the future, the plant can produce over four million lenses a year. The first batch of lenses will be ready for use in the second half of 2016,” it said.
Senior Vice-President of Abbott’s Vision Business, Tom Frinzi, said the plant would help meet the growing need for cataract surgeries as the global population got older.
“Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in many parts of the world. But they can be treated and vision can be restored with intraocular lenses,” he said.--BERNAMA