1950 Dr. Benito Cu Unjieng establishes Cu Unjieng Investments, Inc. (Cuvest), which then serves as the exclusive distributor of Wyeth, Armour Pharmaceuticals, Institut Merieux, Institut Pasteur, Laboratoire Chauvin, Dexxon, Egis, Gedeon Richter, and Solco pharmaceutical products in the Philippines.
1988 Guillermo Cu Unjieng, Benito’s son, founds PharmAsia with the objective of offering both private and government hospitals better-priced options for off-patent injectable products. The company’s first principal is Astrapin GmbH of Germany.
1990 PharmAsia obtains its first product registration from the Bureau of Food and Drugs (now the Food and Drug Administration Philippines) for dexamethasone sodium phosphate injection and begins operations out of a one-room office beside the creek along Mayapis Street in Makati City. Several other Astrapin GmbH products are soon registered, and PharmAsia nurtures a small product line of regularly used injectables to offer its hospital customers.
1992 PharmAsia offers an option, an alternative, to the innovators' brands. Before this, only the products of the latter were available to hospitals. The company’s product line eventually comprises methylergometrine maleate (Stimutrine Inj.), promethazine sulfate (Thaprozine Inj.), fluphenazine decanoate (Fluphdec Inj.), and ketamine (Ketaject Inj.). During this period, PharmAsia concentrates its marketing and sales efforts on government hospitals and appoints Cuvest as its exclusive sub-distributor to focus on developing the private-hospital market.
1994 PharmAsia registers its first injectable antibiotic, cefuroxime sodium (Kefox Inj.).
1997 The company takes over the development of the private market from Cuvest, as the latter decides to focus its efforts on marketing its own core products. A strategic decision is made to pivot away from government accounts and focus almost exclusively on the private-hospital market.
1998 PharmAsia is appointed the exclusive distributor of Orchid Pharmaceuticals of India, at the time one of the largest manufacturers in the world of cephalosporin injections.
1999 DEMO Pharmaceuticals S.A.—a world-class manufacturer of small volume parenterals—designates PharmAsia as its exclusive distributor in the Philippines. The company introduces DEMO’s ciprofloxacin (Zalvos Inj.) to the country.
2000 Admittedly a tumultuous year, Cuvest loses nearly all of its product distributorship due to the mergers and acquisitions its principals undergo and the resulting upheaval in the global pharmaceutical industry. Ironically, this had been Cuvest’s best financial year ever, capping nearly two decades of steady growth in sales and profits. Cuvest ceases operations at the end of the year and acquires a 15% equity interest in PharmAsia, which changes its name to PharmAsia-Cuvest, Inc. to reflect this new arrangement.
2001 PharmAsia-Cuvest, Inc. undertakes a calculated reorganization and absorbs all the key personnel of Cuvest, as well as the distribution of the latter’s remaining products.
2003 After assigning its Philippine operations to Germany’s Schwarz Pharma, Gedeon Richter decides to entrust its business to PharmAsia-Cuvest, Inc. once more.
2004–present PharmAsia-Cuvest, Inc. gradually unwinds its dealings with provincial sub-distributors to establish its own operations in key cities of the Philippines. Today, the company directly services over 300 hospitals and pharmacy chains in 12 regions of the Philippines.