KUALA LUMPUR (March 7): Hovid Bhd has been reissued the manufacturing licence for its plant in Chemor, Perak, from the National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau,  under the Ministry of Health Malaysia.

On Jan 10, the Health Ministry’s Pharmaceutical Services Division had revoked Hovid’s manufacturing licences for its plants in Chemor and Ipoh.

This was due to the audit findings of the NPRA, which stated that Hovid’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) was not acceptable, and that its pharmaceutical quality system did not comply with the latest cGMP requirements.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia this evening, Hovid announced that the licence it received is valid from March 6 and is to be renewed three months prior to its expiry date on Dec 31 this year.

However, the manufacturing licence for the group’s Ipoh plant located at 121, Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, is pending the completion of corrective actions which are currently in progress.

“Hovid targets to complete the necessary corrective actions at the Ipoh Plant to comply with the cGMP required by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Department (NPRA) by the end of March 2017, and submit the necessary reports to NPRA immediately thereafter.

“The re-issuance of the licence will be subject to NPRA being satisfied with our corrective actions taken. We estimate to receive the decision from NPRA for our Ipoh Plant by the end of May 2017,” the firm said.

Both its plants in Ipoh and Chemor produce pharmaceutical products. The Ipoh plant also produces Hovid’s signature Ho Yan Hor herbal tea.

The pharmaceuticals company had faced a major hiccup in the beginning of the year when it announced a recall for its Ternolol 50mg film-coated tablets manufactured under the batch number BG04645 bearing manufacturing date April 2016, for the Malaysian market.

It share price took a nosedive after the news to 28.5 sen on Jan 11 — the lowest closing since September 2013.

The recall was apparently due to a labelling mix-up.

Hovid shares closed unchanged at 31.5 sen today and for a market capitalisation of RM258.47 million.