BEIRUT: Industry Minister Ghazi Zaiter underlined on Friday the importance of boosting the production of pharmaceutical drugs in the Arab world in order to be able to lower Arab countries’ dependency on imported products.
“There are 245 companies in the Arab world specialized in manufacturing pharmaceutical drugs with 40 percent of their production consumed in the Arab market, and that 90 percent of the raw materials used to manufacture these drugs are imported from the West,” Zaiter said.
He addd that it was very important to intensify the cooperation between the private and public sector and increase the role of universities and research centers in developing pharmaceuticals products.
“We should be able to produce enough quantities to meet the demand of our Arab countries without having to rely on other sources. This can be done by going into joint projects which will enable us to increase our imports as well,” he said.
“Joint projects will increase our monetary capabilities for covering the costs of a high quality production which includes the acquiring of highly skilled people with a deep knowledge in the laboratory work and medical technologies,” he added.
His remarks came during the international pharmaceutical conference entitled “The future of the pharmaceutical industry in the Arab world” held at the Moevenpick Hotel in Beirut.
The conference, which was organized by the Lebanese American University in collaboration with Hikma Pharmaceuticals, aims at discussing the challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry in the Arab World, and the measures that should be taken to improve the performance of this industry in this region.
Zaiter noted that capital should not be a barrier facing Arab companies.
“Arab countries should increase their cooperation in order to face the competition imposed by international companies and the amounts of money they inject in this industry,” he said.
This will prevent them from flooding the market with their low-cost products,” he said. “It is important to exchange the know-how and improve the working procedures among our Arab countries in addition to the registration, marketing and distribution techniques.”
Zaiter noted that Lebanon has only seven pharmaceutical factories which meet 6 percent of the local market needs.
According to the statistics of the Health Ministry in Lebanon, the registered pharmaceutical drugs in Lebanon today reached 5,231, including 1,083 (20.7 percent) locally manufactured and 4,148 (79.3 percent) imported. All of the locally manufactured drugs are generic but the total percentage of generics available in the market including the locally manufactured and the imported ones is 48.67 percent today.
Chairman of Hikma Pharmaceuticals in Jordan Samih Darwazah emphasized the importance of depending on generic drugs in the Arab world.
“They are highly consumed in the United States, and this should be the case in our countries as well,” he said. However, he added, there must be increased control on the products manufactured in the Arab countries in order to be able to successfully market these products and gain the trust of people all over the world.
His views were echoed by the Ambassador of Jordan in Lebanon Ziad al-Majaly, who added that he was very proud to find out that Jordanian pharmaceuticals are already available and sold in the US market. “Despite the hard conditions imposed by the US authorities regarding the registration of new pharmaceutical products in the United States, we were able to reach their market,” he said.
The capital investment in the pharmaceutical sector in Jordan reached $900 million in 2009, according to Hikma Pharmaceutical chairman and CEO Mazen Darwazah. “Today the employment in the pharmaceutical industry exceeds 8,500 employees in Jordan while the total production will exceed $700 million in 2009 and exports represent 80 percent of the total production,” he said.
Among the challenges facing this industry in the Arab world and particularly in Lebanon is counterfeiting, according to Armand Phares, president of the Lebanese pharmaceutical importers association.
It is estimated by the British intelligence that counterfeiting constitutes 6 percent out of a $230 billion of total volume of pharmaceutical business in the world. “This constitutes a real danger for our countries but I think that the number in Lebanon is far from reaching the 6 percent,” he said.
Phares added that the customs authorities should be able to control problems such as these and try to prevent these imports to Lebanon.
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