A pharmaceutical company, Sudair Pharma, plans to set up a SR1 billion plant for producing cancer treatment medicines.

Commerce and Industry Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah is to lay the foundation for the factory, which will be located in the Sudair Industrial City, some 100 km from Riyadh.

The plant, described as the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, is located on a 77,000 sqm area.

Sudair Pharma is a Saudi-based company established for the purpose of building an advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing complex to combat chronic and life threatening diseases, in 2014.

Dr. Yasser Al-Obaida, CEO of Sudair Pharma, said the foundation laying ceremony is the second stage of the factory project. Its products will cater to the needs of cancer patients both locally and in the GCC.

He pointed out that the cancer drugs in the Kingdom are estimated to be $300 million per year and their growth is expected to be seven percent annually.

He said the project is divided into several stages, and this development is about to the first stage; the establishment of oncology medicine plant.” It is being set up with foreign collaboration, he added.

A closer look at the cancer problem by the World Health Organization reveals a faster increase of cancer incidence rates in the Middle East compared to the rest of the world.

The Saudi Cancer Registry has recorded an increase of more than 12 percent per annum compared to the global rise, which does not exceed 3 percent per annum.

He explained that the other phases of the project will produce a variety of combinations of drugs to cover various diseases.