MUSCAT: Phllex Pharmaceuticals, which celebrated the inauguration of its factory in Salalah Free Zone in Dhofar Governorate last week, says it plans start packaging vaccines in collaboration with Bio-Invest by the end of 2023.
Speaking to the Observer, Dr Samir Machour, Executive Chairman of Bio-Invest, shared the following: “Bio-Invest signed an agreement with Philex, that is specific to a portfolio of vaccines, whereby Philex will be first responsible for the registration and then the fill-finish of those vaccines.” “Bio-Invest has a portfolio of over 20 vaccines, which covers probably 90 per cent of vaccines needed in Africa and the Middle East,” he added.
The signed agreement also includes biologics, medications made using living organisms.
According to Dr Machour, the agreement will expand the coverage of healthcare for vaccines and biologics specifically due to their expensive price point.
“If you have cancer — and I don't wish that upon anyone — the likelihood that you wouldn't find the drug in Oman is probably 90 per cent. So you have to go abroad to get it.” “The likelihood is that you will buy it probably for a thousand dollars minimum for one injection, sometimes it's 5,000, sometimes it's 10,000.” In addition, Dr Machour believes that the agreement will allow for the transfer of technology in the pharmaceutical industry.
“Transferring technology was never easy, no big company voluntary transfers its technology, so we learned the lesson from Covid that if you rely on those that own the technology in terms of prices, it’s their country first and you have seen some countries — without naming any — they just closed their doors and Africa was left behind, the Middle East had to struggle even to acquire those vaccines for the Covid-19 virus.”
“It was a question of life and death in many countries, so I think the lessons learned here is that we need to have the ability to scale up the technology transfer so that it allows us to start thinking about research development, and we cannot have self-sustainability anyway for the long term with manufacturing only.” The transfer of technology would not be limited to Philex only, but will also extend to the government.
“We will do this with Philex and the government as well, just to allow the government to be able to know how to regulate vaccines and biologics, and how to test those vaccines and biologics. So it's a win-win basically, it is scaling up the government’s capabilities and the industry’s.” Philex Pharmaceuticals is expected to fill-finish three or four vaccines, and one or two biologics at the end of this year.
The pharmaceutical plant, set up with an investment estimated at $150 million, has a production capacity of one billion capsules and one billion tablets per year.
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