Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Limited (CiplaQCIL), a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Uganda, which was the first African company to manufacture triple-combination antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, is set to sell part of its shares to the public.
This is popularly known as Initial Public Offer or IPO.
The listing of CiplaQCIL, which also manufactures the antimalarial drug Lumartem, containing artemisinin and lumefantrine, and the Hepatitis B generic medicines Texavir and Zentair, is set to go live on Tuesday next week.
In 2004, Quality Chemicals Limited (QCL) convinced Indian drug maker Cipla to go into a joint venture with QCL and the government of Uganda to establish a pharmaceutical plant in Uganda.
Ground was broken in 2005 and the factory was commissioned in 2007,with capacity of 6 million pills daily.
In 2009, TLG Capital, a London-based private equity company, invested an undisclosed amount of money in the plant.
Later, CapitalWorks Investment Partners, a private equity firm based in South Africa, also became a shareholder in the plant.
In February 2010, the government of Uganda divested from the plant by selling its shares “at cost” to CiplaQCIL. The transaction was valued at US$5 million.
In February 2011, the owners of the plant announced a US$40 million expansion of the production line to include increased production of antiretroviral and antimalarial medication.
In April 2012, British media reported that CiplaQCIL was in the process of expanding its manufacturing capacity fourfold.
The plant had received approval of its processes and products from the World Health Organization. The products were expected to be initially marketed in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
As of April 2016, the company’s products were marketed in Cameroon, Comoros, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Recently, the Asantehene of Ashanti Kingdom in Ghana, visited the company and offered it free land in Ghana to construct a subsidiary there.
