Pfizer has announced plans to build a pharmaceutical plant in Saudi Arabia. The plant, in King Abdullah Economic City (Kaec, photo right), north of Jeddah, will incorporate medicine manufacturing and packaging within a single complex. The new plant will contribute to national commercial and economic development and to create new opportunities for qualified employment.
The plant will cover an area of 65,000 square meters. Production will start in 2015 with 200 employees. Financial details were not disclosed, but Pfizer said the project benefits from the Saudi government's competitive edge. The latter is in fact trying to attract more investors and is promoting Kaec as a commercial and industrial center of excellence.
Mohanad Hilal, secretary general of the Saudi national economic authority, stressed that the news "highlights the concrete measures that have been undertaken by Saudi Arabia for the diversification of sectors not related to oil". The Saudi pharmaceutical market is the largest in the Persian Gulf, but major foreign companies are not present much at the moment, with the exception of GlaxoSmithKline, which has a market share of about 11%.
PharmaKronos – Barbara Di Chiara – 7 October 2011 
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