Saudi pharma market crucial to country’s Vision 2030

Plan in the kingdom is to raise the percentage of total pharmaceutical production to 40% from the current 20%.

During a presentation by Dr Faisal BinDail, Chairman of the National Committee for Pharmaceutical Industries, titled Delivering Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a range of topics related to the pharmaceutical industry were discussed, including incentives for stimulating local manufacturing and the opportunities the emerging contract manufacturing sector present.

Dr BinDail said: “In the context of Saudi Arabia, pharma manufacturing holds an important position in achieving the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. The regulatory body, local industry players, global companies have realised the importance of this initiative and are working towards strengthening localised pharmaceutical manufacturing. Part of the transformation plan in the kingdom is to raise the percentage of total pharmaceutical production to 40% from the current 20%. The Government is supportive, local companies are gearing up and the regulatory body is encouraging, facilitating and providing incentives – thereby encouraging global companies to take advantage of this opportunity.

“Moreover, there is an enthusiasm among the local players to raise their standards and provide quality affordable medicines. Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries to adopt track and trace system to curb the menace of counterfeit.”

Saudi Arabia is the largest pharmaceutical market in the MENA region worth US$7.5 billion dollars and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 5.5%.

“The market is dominated by branded products, as there is a preference for brands locally, but at the same time there is an opportunity for generics as well to expand. Around 20% of the pharma market is locally manufactured, while 80% is still imported from different countries, from the US, Europe, and different parts of the world, this is in brief how the pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia currently looks like,” added Dr BinDail.