DKSH, a well-heeled pharma marketing operation, has reupped with Roche ($RHHBY), expanding a long-standing agreement to include more of Asia.
Under the agreement, DKSH will continue to manage Roche's supply chain in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, adding Singapore to that list in a relationship that stretches back into the 1940s, the company said.
DKSH makes its money by employing its expansive reach across Asia to provide market-access services to Western companies. The company's healthcare practice is favored by the world's largest drugmakers, and the Roche extension follows similar agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY), Sanofi ($SNY), Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) and Pfizer ($PFE).
"The extension of our agreement into new markets provides opportunities for Roche," Philippe Meyer, the company's general manager for Thailand, said in a statement. "DKSH is a reliable and professional partner that helps us grow our business across Asia, so that we can focus on our core business."
Last year, DKSH's healthcare business brought in about $4.9 billion, and it has grown to employ about 9,000 people across 150 sites in 14 countries, the company said.
DKSH has been expanding its offerings around the continent over the past year, getting into contract manufacturing and closing bolt-on acquisitions to grow its footprint. In February, DKSH bought out a Macau distributor to widen its regional presence, and, last summer, the company opened a 14,000-square-foot South Korean facility to distribute its clients devices, drugs and medical supplies in that country's swelling market.
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