INTRODUCTION
Historical Background
Just after the Second World War, when the nation was devastated and Filipinos were in need of medicines, Isosceles Pascual and his wife, Leonora Figueroa-Pascual, founded Pascuallab as a single proprietorship. They operated their business out of Tondo, Manila with products for treatment of tuberculosis and vitamin deficiency then.
In 1952, the Pascuals modernized their plant in Tondo and expanded the operations to include anti-infectives and cardiovascular medicines.
By the 1960s, Pascuallab entered into strategic partnerships with foreign-based companies and became a corporation. It was during this time that it formalized the marketing and sales activities and strengthened its Product Research and Development Division.
In the 1970s, Pascuallab transferred its manufacturing plant from Tondo to a place then known as Km 31, MacArthur Highway in Balagtas, Bulacan in response to the government’s call to locate all factories outside the 30-kilometer radius from Manila. The head office moved to Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), Quezon City. Pharex Corporation assumed the distribution of the company’s products.
In the 1980s, the company made Metro Drug Crop. as product distributor and officially appointed Pharex health Corp as the marketing arm of Pascual Corp’s generic products. It also formed the Consumer Products Division to market personal hygiene and vitamin products.
In the 1990s, it went into intensive marketing for consumer health products using media advertising and product endorsers, a major change initiative that started tremendous sales growth. In 1995, it ventured into native Philippine herbal medicinal products and established Altermed Corporation.
In 2000-05, the company modernized and expanded the plants in Bulacan and it gained the ISO 9001:2000 (quality management systems) certification. Pharex