Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries disclosed it is going to construct what it has called the largest injectable medicine producing plan in Ethiopia at the cost of USD 50 Million.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) based company and also refered as Julphar, started operating in Ethiopia back in 2012 by building a pharmaceutical plant in the capital city. The factory which costed USD 9.17 Million went operational a year later by producing different pharmaceuticals. Back then it was the first time for Julphar to construct a manufacturing plant outside of UAE.
According to senior director of the company’s corporate development, Engineer Hassan Jibreel, the company is thinking to expand its current projects. “At the beginning, it was like coming into a black box for us to move on such a big investment in Ethiopia. But, it turned out to be very different,” he explained.
Jibreel noted the second phase of the project is going to mainly consist of injectable medicine producing plants and warehouse facilities. The plants and facilities are going to be the largest in Africa and the biggest the company owns outside of UAE. “We have already secured 11,000 square meters plot of land in Addis Ababa to start manufacturing by the end of 2015,” he said.
The aim of the injectable medicines plant is to fill the demand for insulin for patients with diabetes across the country and the African continent.
Other than this the company has also expressed its interest in carrying out conferences and workshops aimed at assisting local pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Jibreel explained, “We feel the local manufacturers really lack up-to-date knowledge in the area; so we want to focus on building up capacity through Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and that is why we want to organize workshops to share our experience in that regard.”
On the 14th and 15th of January, in collaboration with Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Associations (EPA) and other partners, Julphar organized a two-day workshop to impart standard manufacturing practices to the local industries at Elilly International Hotel. The workshop was mainly aimed at basic pharmaceutical manufacturing practices and equipment specialized in granulation process and tablet coating.
It was back in 2002 Julphar made its debut in the Ethiopian market as a supplier after joining hands with Medtech Ethiopia.
Source: The Reporter
