MoU with Pfizer to provide long-term infrastructure, 4 local factories ready for direct manufacturing: Official

Osama Al-Zamil, Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources

Osama Al-Zamil, Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, said the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with Pfizer aims to provide long-term infrastructure rather than direct manufacturing or commercial production only.

The MoU targets to set up a research center to produce a different kind of vaccines for clinical trials, establish production platforms for accelerating and manufacturing biotech vaccines to become a basis for appropriate industrial clusters for this promising sector.

Saudi Arabia is home for more than 40 pharmaceutical factories, of which three or four are ready for direct manufacturing of vaccines in cooperation with those companies. The factories are in direct talks with those companies, with the support of the Kingdom, Zamil explained.

Work is also underway to localize this technology, he noted, adding that the ministry will deal with the local pharmaceutical producers on the commercial level.

The industry ministry has been recently mandated with analyzing all pharmaceutical industries that ensure pharmaceutical and health security in the Kingdom, Al-Zamil noted.

Moreover, very promising investment opportunities are available in the Saudi pharmaceutical market. The ministry aims to undertake quality investments with those companies, to make the Saudi market their first choice in the Middle East, he concluded.

The Ministry of Industry and King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) signed an MoU with Pfizer to set a basis for the local manufacturing of viral and genetic vaccines in the Kingdom, Argaam reported.