“According to this partnership, the leading Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis will provide technical know-how in manufacturing vaccines in quantities, so we can respond to the needs of Saudi Arabia and the region,” he told Arab News.

Reinhardt considered this joint project a promising beginning for Swiss-Saudi cooperation in a new field that would lead to more similar projects in other fields, while improving already excellent relations between the two countries.

The plant, the first and largest of its kind in the Arab world for manufacturing vaccines for common diseases with an investment of SR150 million startup capital, will start business early next year, according to Dr. Majid Bahathiq, director general of Arab Company for Pharmaceutical Products (Arabio), which owns the plant.

He was speaking at the signing of a 20-year technical and strategic partnership agreement, also attended by Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah.

The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Health headquarters by Dr. Muhammed Khushaim, deputy health minister for planning and development, on behalf of the ministry, as well as representatives from Arabio and Novartis.

Al-Rabeeah thanked Arabio for its initiative and said that the agreement was very crucial to the Kingdom, mainly because of its contribution to health security.

CEO of Arabio Khalid Ahmad Al-Jaffaly told Arab News the Health Ministry’s support was crucial in making the project a reality.

Arabio’s vaccine plant, based in Makkah, has a capacity to produce 16 million doses of vaccine a year, eventually increasing to 35 million vaccines.

CEO of Novartis Joe Jimenez told Arab News his company remains strongly committed to Saudi Arabia.

“We will transfer technology and bring three innovative vaccines to the county. The first is against meningitis, the second a vaccine for five childhood diseases and the third a flu vaccine called Agrippal that will be distributed in the Saudi market,” he said.

The vaccines will be manufactured in accordance with criteria set by major international leading health authorities, including the United States Food and Drug Authority, European Medicine Agency and World Health Organization, said Bahathiq.

Though the plant will be mainly targeting the Saudi market, its products will also be exported to other markets including the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopian, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti.