Localizing the Pharmaceutical Industry in the Kingdom

Localizing the Pharmaceutical Industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a project announced by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, aimed at localizing the industry and transferring vaccine and biopharmaceutical knowledge to the Kingdom, with the goal of contributing to enhancing national pharmaceutical and health security.

The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources in the Kingdom seeks to develop and provide pharmaceutical industries capable of achieving pharmaceutical security for the Kingdom and making it a hub for these vital industries, whose market size is estimated at SAR30 billion. The ministry is working through the National Industrial Development Center and in partnership with a number of government entities to achieve these goals.

The Ministry announced this project during the inauguration of the first virtual workshop to attract and localize pharmaceutical industries, organized by the National Industrial Development Center under the slogan "Sustainable Pharmaceutical Industry" in February 2021.

The Ministry is responsible for establishing the necessary legislation and regulations for localizing this industry, in partnership with relevant stakeholders and government entities. The ministry promised to protect markets from unfair competition and substandard products in cooperation with the Saudi Food and Drug Authority and the Saudi Standards, Metrology, and Quality Organization. Such factors will support development and increase investments in the industrial sector.

The size of investment in the pharmaceutical sector in the Kingdom is the largest in the region, exceeding 30 percent of the Middle East market. Meanwhile, the number of registered pharmaceutical factories in the Kingdom exceeds forty, covering 36 percent of the Saudi market's demand for medicines. The growth rate in this sector is estimated at 5 percent annually, with export volumes exceeding SAR1.5 billion.

The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources has affirmed that there are several elements upon which the pharmaceutical industry strategy is based, such as accurately quantifying the size of the pharmaceutical market in the Kingdom, which has been divided into several sub-sectors to identify the basic pharmaceutical sectors in the Kingdom. Moreover, all indicators and figures make the ministry more determined and insistent on localizing this pharmaceutical industry in the Kingdom.

The ministry has worked to provide all enablers and incentives that contribute to the development of this vital industry and attract local and foreign investments. The Kingdom possesses several advantages, including its geographic location, the presence of a suitable investment environment, and the stability of legislation, among others.