Singapore: Abbott, one of the world's leading healthcare companies, is investing $60 million to build a facility in Malayasia to manufacture intraocular lens (IOLs) used to treat cataracts.

The plant was expected to begin operations next year, with the first products available in the second half of 2016.

Ms Diane Beno, Abbot Medical Optics divisional vice president of global operations, said the facility marked the first manufacturing investment in Malaysia to broaden the group's presence globally.

"The facility will supply the global IOLs market. An intraocular lens is implanted in the eye after the removal of natural lens that has become clouded by a cataract," she told reporters after the ground-breaking ceremony for the facility in Kulim.

"About 22.7 million cataract surgeries were forecast to be performed worldwide this year, and the number was expected to grow to 27.1 million by 2019," she added.
Abbott serves people in more than 150 countries and employs some 69,000 workers.