Kinal and King-Father Norodom Sihanouk: an unbreakable bond

On October 31, 2022, King-Father Norodom Sihanouk, who died in 2012, would have been 100 years old.  Father of the national independence he obtained peacefully from France in 1953, political personality of international stature in the 20th century, notably through his commitment to the Non-Aligned Movement and as a founding member of the Francophonie movement, Norodom Sihanouk ascended the throne of the kingdom for the first time in 1941, under the French protectorate, and then a second time in 1993 before abdicating in 2004 in favor of his son HM Norodom Sihamoni. 

Throughout his life, the King-Father never stopped fighting to preserve and consolidate the sovereignty and national independence of Cambodia, both politically and economically.

As such, in the 1960’s, while directly ruling the country through the Sangkum Reastr Niyum, he encouraged the development of a national health system, through the training of university practitioners – doctors, pharmacists – and the creation of health structures.

It was during the effervescence of those years and to accompany this movement for the country’s health independence that Dr. Kok Sok Kim invented and marketed the painkiller Kinal, the first “modern” medicine developed and produced in Cambodia.

When, after the Khmer Rouge regime and the years of war that almost wiped Cambodia and the Cambodians off the face of the earth, Dr. Hay Ly Eang wanted to put the Cambodian pharmaceutical industry back on its feet by creating PPM Laboratories in 1996, he naturally did so under the banner of Kinal, whose production he re-launched.

At the beginning, Kinal suffered from competition from Western products and from the poor image of local products among Cambodians themselves.

A “helping hand” from Norodom Sihanouk, then King of Cambodia, helped change this.

As the name of the drug was associated in his mind with the heyday of the Sangkum Reastr Niyum, he was delighted to receive a donation of Kinal from Dr. Hay and PPM Laboratories for his royal works. The wide media coverage of this donation and the broadcasting on all the country’s television stations of images of King Norodom Sihanouk receiving boxes of Kinal with a big smile gave a decisive impetus to the relaunch of the product, which is today one of PPM’s flagship products.

More than a medicine, Kinal symbolizes, for PPM laboratories, their contribution to the indispensable health independence of the country. In doing so, PPM is particularly proud to continue to follow in the footsteps of His Majesty King Father Norodom Sihanouk and to work towards the development of a pharmaceutical industry that is committed to making quality medicines available to the greatest number of people, in Cambodia and abroad. The centenary of the birth of King-Father Norodom Sihanouk is an opportunity for PPM Laboratories and the PPM-Confirel Group to join the people of Cambodia in expressing once again their gratitude for his unceasing commitment to the independence and sovereignty of the country.