The start of the first phase of manufacturing the “insulin” drug...

Bandar Al-Khorayef, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, inaugurated the first phase of the start of manufacturing the “insulin” drug in the “Saudi Bio” plant located in Sudair City for Industry and Business in the Riyadh region, and he stopped production lines at the factory of the Saudi Company for Medical Technology Industries.
The minister was briefed on the mechanisms of implementing the first stage of the production of the insulin hormone in the factory, where he listened to an explanation of the work plans at this stage, which include the secondary packaging of the drug, stressing the need to accelerate the production steps to reach the complete manufacture of the hormone and fully localize this important industry.
His Excellency the Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources stressed in a press statement after the inauguration that the localization of pharmaceutical industries is a top priority for the industry system because of its importance in achieving public health and national drug security, adding that the Kingdom aims to raise the rate of localization of the pharmaceutical industry from 25% currently to 50% by year 2030.
He added that “the size of the Saudi market in the pharmaceutical industry is in the range of 30 billion riyals, while the number of pharmaceutical factories in Saudi Arabia is 42 facilities registered with the Food and Drug Authority, distributed between the traditional and biological pharmaceutical industries,” pointing out that the volume of spending on importing insulin reaches One billion riyals annually, which confirms the importance of localizing this industry to achieve drug safety.
Al-Khorayef indicated that the industry system has promising and comprehensive plans to localize the various vital sectors that are important to the country, as the National Industry Development and Logistics Services Program (one of the programs for achieving the Kingdom’s 2030 vision) is working on many programs to localize priority industries, including the pharmaceutical and vaccine industry, stressing Emiratization plans are proceeding according to clear mechanisms, taking into account the priorities and importance of each industry.
The Saudi Company for Biomedical Technology Industries (Saudi Bio) is one of the Saudi companies working to transfer and localize the biomedical technology industry, as it began to establish a factory for the production of insulin, cancer and hematology drugs, and possesses the latest advanced technologies, and began its plans to localize insulin production by signing an agreement with an industry leader Insulin in the world is the Danish “Novo Nordisk” company in 2018, and the company also established a program for Saudi competencies, where the percentage of Saudi workers in the company’s “Saudi Bio” factory is about 53%.