EDA: Gypto Pharma achieves Egypt’s objectives to localise drugs

By Ibrahim Mohamed

Egypt celebrated the success of the first phase of the strategic partnership between Roche Egypt and Gypto Pharma.

The co-operation aims to transfer the advanced technology for the manufacture of vital drugs within Egypt in the field of oncology and the national project Gypto Pharma.

Chairman of the Egyptian Drug Authority Dr Ali el-Ghamrawi took part in the ceremony to announce the success in the presence of Dr Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, Minister of Health and Population, and a number of officials.

El-Ghamrawi stressed EDA’s keenness to co-operate with industry companies, transfer successful international experiences to work within the Egyptian pharmaceutical system, seek to support the opportunities of local manufacture of the drug, and the importance of localising the drug industry in Egypt.

“The most important feature of this partnership is the building of Egyptian pharmaceutical cadres with the capacity to innovate and develop; especially development of human resources in the drug sector is a strategic basis for achieving the sustainable development goals of healthcare in Egypt’s Vision 2030,” el-Ghamrawi said.

He added that the size of the oncology drug market total sales by the end of the third quarter of 2024 amounted to LE18.2 billion, with a total of 731 thousand units.

It is expected to reach about LE24.3 billion for 975 thousand packs by the end of 2024, with a 55 per cent growth rate for 2023, as well as a growth rate of about 38 per cent over the past 5 years (2019-2023).

El-Ghamrawi highlighted that the volume of imports in this sector makes us have a vision and a goal to reduce the import bill.

“We will find that this partnership is targeting a localising plan for 8 highly traded drugs, whose import bill costs up to $161.7 million.

The initial phase of the partnership would contribute significantly to improving the quality of health care.

EDA is keen to provide possible support to ensure the availability of Egyptian medicines in order to upgrade the local drug industry in Egypt with global technology and quality.