Industry sources reveal that a 60 million Emirati dirhams ($16 million) pharmaceuticals manufacturing plant will be inaugurated in Jabal Ali, Dubai, next October, reported Al-Ittihad daily. The project was established as a joint venture between the Dubai Investment Company (60 percent) and the Indian Kopran Ltd. Company (40 percent).
The new Global Pharma Pharmaceuticals Factory, considered one of the largest of its kind in the world, is expected to produce more than 65 international pharmaceutical brand names in this facility. Within two years it will reportedly be capable of producing more than 300 pharmaceutical brands.
Khalid Bin Kalban, a senior executive at the Dubai Investment Company, announced that production will initially commence at an experimental basis, while regular operations begining in the first quarter of next year.
Official statistics reveal that the UAE is the second largest pharmaceuticals consumer market in the Arabian Gulf. Last year, the domestic pharmaceuticals market was valued $190 million. The overall pharmaceutical market in the Gulf States was estimated at $1.4 billion during the same year.
Market sources estimate the value of total pharmaceuticals consumption last year in Saudi Arabia at $900 million. The same sources added that 95 percent of Saudi and Gulf pharmaceutical imports come from Europe. — (Mena Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
