Malaysia: Guidelines for Halal medicine launched Category: Home, Industry News UK & World, Pharmaceuticals, Trends

Tags: halal medicine | Malaysian Standard MS 2424:2012 Halal Pharmaceuticals-General Guidelines | Muslim | Shariah

2/10/12 www.dailyexpress.com.my

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia is the first country in the world to have created a halal ecosystem called Malaysian Standard MS 2424:2012 Halal Pharmaceuticals-General Guidelines.

The guidelines which will cater to the local and global halal market, will set the standards and general guidelines in the manufacturing and handling of halal pharmaceuticals.

“It will serve as a basic requirement for halal pharmaceuticals in Malaysia,” Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Datuk Fadillah Yusof, said in his speech during the launch, Monday.

The guidelines are home grown, and their development follows the Malaysian standards development process, guided by the World Trade Organization-Technical Barriers To Trade (WTO-TBT).

It also received guidelines from the International Standardisation Organisation guides.

“To date, the estimated Muslim population worldwide stands at 1.8 billion with the global halal market estimated at US$2.3 trillion a year including both food and non-food sectors.

“This figure is expected to rise especially with halal appealing to Muslims and non-Muslims alike,” he said.

Fadillah added that for Malaysia alone the export value for halal products in 2011 was RM35.4 billion, representing 5.1 per cent of the total exports for the country.

As for 2012, the targeted figure for halal exports is expected to increase six per cent with halal parks expected to bring in an estimated RM1 billion investment.