Bandung, Indonesia – 25th February 2025 Arabio, a leading biopharmaceutical company in Saudi Arabia, and BioFarma, a global leader in vaccine development, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under the patronage of the Minister of Health of Saudi Arabia. This strategic agreement aims to establish Arabio as the regional manufacturing hub for vaccines in the MENA region, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s commitment to localizing vaccine production and enhancing regional healthcare resilience.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Arab Company for Pharmaceutical Products (Arabio), represented by the company’s CEO Dr. Abdulrahman Almutairi, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The General Directorate of Health Services at the Ministry of Defense, represented by its Director General Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Amry, in the presence of officials from both sides. This MoU aims to strengthen joint cooperation between the two parties in the field of healthcare and improve the quality of services provided to patients through the exchange of expertise and cooperation in the implementation of health programs and projects.

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – 6th July 2023 – Lifera, a biopharmaceutical company in Saudi Arabia together with Sanofi, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies specializing in vaccine development and Arabio today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which aims to strengthen local manufacturing of vaccines in Saudi Arabia.

Under the terms of the MOU, Lifera, Sanofi and Arabio will explore opportunities for collaboration to help advance Saudi Arabia’s vaccines localization strategy through a range of proposed initiatives that include Lifera being a contract manufacturer to Sanofi, through state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and capabilities, as well as leveraging Arabio and Tamer Group’s, local and regional distribution strength in vaccines and other key pharmaceutical products.

AbbVie will partner with Arabio to manufacture Humira and other drugs in Saudi Arabia. — Courtesy of AbbVie.

As growth has slowed in some emerging markets, Western drugmakers are looking to second- and third-tier emerging markets to gain momentum. The Middle East has become the new hot spot for pharma, and AbbVie ($ABBV) has found its way there.

The signature of this tripartite manufacturing agreement in March 2014 between Arabio, GSAL and GSK Vaccines establishes a long-term alliance for the manufacturing of GSK Vaccines in Saudi Arabia.

The scope of the alliance is the appointment of Arabio as a contract manufacturer for the filling and packaging of selected liquid vaccines in prefilled syringes and vials for supply to the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. In addition to the partnership developed in 2010 between GSK Vaccines and GSAL for the manufacturing and commercialization of vaccines in Saudi Arabia, the extension of this partnership to Arabio will allow GSAL to commercialize in Saudi Arabia GSK Vaccines locally manufactured (filled and packed) by Arabio.

As such, all GSK Vaccines needed for the Universal Vaccination Program of the Kingdom will be manufactured in Saudi Arabia either by GSAL or by Arabio.

Saudi Arabia-based Arabio appointed Alphamed as its sales and distribution partner in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Arabio claims to be the only Arab firm specialized in producing biologics and vaccines, and started manufacturing operations at its 10,000 m2 facility in Makkah, in August 2011.

Arabio has a technology transfer agreement in place with Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, which will enable the manufacture of all the latter’s vaccines at the Makkah facility. Production has already started for Novartis’ Menveo meningitis vaccine, Agrippal flu vaccine, and Quinvaxem, a pentavalent vaccine developed with Crucell against whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, hemophilus influenza type B, and hepatitis B.