"It wasn't about nostalgia. It was about recognising the potential of the company and what it could become with the right strategic pivot." He describes the moment less as going back, and more as "taking responsibility for the company's next chapter." That chapter, it turned out, would span more than two decades, five ASEAN markets, and a business that now employs over 600 personnel and generated close to S$180 million in annual revenue in FY2025.
CEO of Hyphens Pharma International, Lim See Wah, did not start the company from scratch. First, he worked there. Fresh out of the National University of Singapore with a pharmacy degree, Lim joined the Singapore operations of a French-owned pharmaceutical company. Years later, after he left the company, the founder decided to step down. Lim returned, this time to buy it. "Returning years later as the buyer was both humbling and surreal," he says.
