By :Dr.Mohamed Sobhi El Said Othman

• The Vision

The dream of establishing a gigantic industrial medicinal hub has been always a desire that the Egyptian state sought after for a while ago, as the Egyptian state commenced on founding & building the basis for such concept seven years ago, of a hub that is to be built on the foundations of quality and efficient management, until we have reached the time eventually for the execution of this concept, it is a decision that is consistent and parallel with too many unprecedented efforts exerted towards the different sectors for the time being at Egypt, that befits both its great heritage and people.

President. Abdelfattah Al-Sisi has made the decision for establishing this venture, and the work took place in the past three years, until the first phase of the medicinal city was opened on the 1^st of April 2021, a launch that was attended by Mr. President himself and other senior statesmen, imposing an unmistakable sign emphasizing the importance of this national project, that the state have sought after for long ago as in order to possess modern technological and industrial capabilities in such vital field.

The city of medicine also known as (GYPTO Pharma) is a specialized hub in manufacturing various medicines and vaccines, occupying an area of a total one hundred and eighty thousand square meters in Khankah, Qalyubiyah north of Cairo, thus making it is the largest pharmaceutical hub in Egypt & MENA.

The Egyptian state’s vision was to establish a national pharmaceutical entity that operates per the global standards towards achieving various strategic aims including:

First aim: Enabling the Egyptian citizen to access safe and efficient medicine, that is compliant with different international standards & good manufacturing practices (GMP) with an affordable price.

Second aim: Achieving sufficiency of supply and therefore enhancing the state’s strategic pharmaceutical safety, and preventing the monopolistic practices.

Third aim: Establishing a regional and an international hub for the pharmaceutical industry, therefore attracting the mega pharmaceutical companies to invest further in Egypt, especially in the strategic & essential medicinal products.

Fourth aim: Bolstering Egypt’s investments in this sector, and unlocking huge potentials as for the exports, therefore supporting the Egyptian the economy and reducing the pharmaceutical imports.

Fifth aim: Keeping up with the world’s technological pace in the pharmaceutical sector, mainly in the specialized strategic & essential products.

Sixth aim: Spreading the proper pharmaceutical awareness across the Egyptians, and therefore curbing the misuse of medicines.

Seventh aim: Turning focus into the manufacturing of critical forms of medicines, aimed to counter such widespread chronic diseases in Egypt for ex. (Blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, kidney diseases, brain diseases, nerves, antibiotic and hormones), not to mention that “GYPTO Pharma” would enable Egypt as well to enroll in the field of developing and producing vaccines.

Eighth aim: Allowing Egypt to foster new pharmaceutical industries, such as the raw materials, and to expand into the manufacturing of oncological drugs, as these are the two main mandates issued by Mr. President to those in charge of implementing this project since its inception.

The recent pandemic crisis of COVID-19 has proven that the countries that recover from it firstly are the ones with the first and foremost scientific progress in research and manufacturing, especially in the fields of vaccines, and perhaps this confirms that the vision in establishing the medicine city was insightful and timely.

The execution of the “GYPTO PHARMA” takes place in two phases:The first phase : Consisting of two parts, with a total size of one hundred and twenty thousand square meters:-

Part 1 : Includes non-sterile medicines of a solid and non-solid forms, as well as liquid forms with a total number of ten production lines spread across thirty three thousand square meters of land.

Part 2 : Includes the sterile production halls, consisting of five production lines, fully equipped with the most advanced tech in co-operation with big pharmaceutical companies in Europe, USA and South Korea, the first stage is also inclusive to a seven thousand square meters of warehouses with an overall height of fifteen meters built as per the highest standards, as well as five administrative buildings.

the second phase : Occupies sixty thousand square meters, dedicated for the production of the oncological medicinal forms, hormones and antibiotics.

It is projected that the medicine city would consist of a total number of one hundred and sixty production lines, producing the various pharmaceutical forms of medicine, these lines have a projected production capability of one hundred and fifty million packages annually.  
In addition to the fact, that a ten thousand square meters of land were designated to build an electricity supply station with a total capacity of fifty mega volt amber, meeting the city’s entire demand of energy demand.

• The Plan & Governance
• The Egyptian pharmaceutical sector currently includes an overall one hundred and fifty three factories with seven hundred different production lines, marking a total number of seventeen thousand registered products, yet six thousands and three hundred of them are the ones that are actively traded in the market, this represents eighty eight percent of the Egyptian market’s demand for medicine.

And still twelve percent of the domestic market’s drug needs are still imported since they are highly specialized and more complex, such as cancer drugs.

Narrowing this gap is a strategic goal of the Egyptian state, and the existence of such gap has undoubtedly prompted the state’s efforts to consider establishing a city of medicine.

As the objective of this gigantic city is to produce the essential, strategic and most complex medicines, the city certainly applies what is known as the good manufacturing practices (GMPs), enabling it to apply the highest quality standards while managing to provide an electronic governance system within the city, yet capitalizing on the human resource as in order to raise a professional, trained worker who is capable of functioning with and adapting with such a fully automated work environment

Noting the city’s facilities are equipped with the most advanced machinery and tech that could sort out any type of medical forms ( for instance tablets) that do not comply with the physical required specifications as in terms of weight, color or any other specification automatically, the machinery therefore are time efficient as it cleans itself in an automated manner, instead of the exhausting manual procedure of cleaning.

We could then assume that all the pharmaceutical forms with the varying degree of importance from basic to strategic are manufactured per the highest quality standards in the city of medicine (GYPTO Pharma).

There is no doubt that the city’s most crucial and prominent aim is to penetrate into the industry of the raw materials manufacturing, thus taking the pharmaceutical industry in Egypt & the region to a whole new point where it was long overdue.

Such desired co-operation and co-ordination between the city of medicine and the Egyptian pharmaceutical authority and the newly established unified purchase authority will always be in the interest of Egyptian citizens, as such collaboration will certainly narrow and encounter any gap of a qualitive or storage nature regarding the essential products that Egyptian drug security relies upon.

Not only that, but the city aims to export twenty five percent to thirty percent of its production in a phased manner, which will enhance Egypt’s exports of medicine both in quantity and quality, as the pharmaceutical exports accounts to just two hundred and fifty million dollars per annum, and therefore the city’s facilities are seeking to attain the European credit certificates as in order to penetrate new markets and bring more exports potential for the city’s products, the upcoming days will bring positive news regarding the launch of the city’s medicative products to the market, following the completion of the stability tests, as each product that is approved for release from the authority of medicine will be offered at an affordable price for Egyptians citizens.

Day by day, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s directives will be met to increase the minimum strategic stock of medicines and medical supplies to at least six months, reaching the goal of securing a two to three year stockpile, and here we could say that the health crisis that the world has witnessed in the past two years due to coronavirus pandemic has forced the countries of the world to launch and develop themselves rapidly across three directions:-

First direction: The pharmaceutical industry.

Second Direction: Enhancing the logistics of the health sector through the implementation of strategic warehousing projects for medicines, medical supplies and devices.

Third direction: Achieving self-sufficiency of vital and essential products.

And undoubtedly the medicine city project and the fruitful cooperation with the medicine authority and the unified purchasing authority are pushing the Egyptian state’s momentum to complete the movement on these previous axes.

• Moving towards export

Since many years and the state has been launching projects and initiatives related to the medical & health sector in Egypt, including but not limited to the likes of the “comprehensive health insurance” for instance, and the following integration and application of the project on five governorates in its first phase, in addition to the “Dignified Life” initiative which includes the establishment of various health units, medical centers and hospitals in the Egyptian countryside  to provide the highest standards of medical service to more than fifty eight million Egyptians, also the “100 million’s health’ project, and as a continuation of these initiatives and projects, the state is currently completing another critical aspect of the project, which is the industrial aspect and one of the dazzling and promising examples is the “Medicine City” project, of which has been discussed in detail previously, and as we mentioned that it is projected to export thirty percent of the city’s production upon completion.

Then what is the trade volume of the medicine industry both internally and externally?

 The total trade volume of the internal market of medicine in Egypt is about hundred and twenty five billion pounds, of which ninety billions are through the private sector and thirty five billions are through government tenders.

As for the export, its volume does not exceed two hundred and fifty million dollars per year, of which is undoubtedly not proportionate with the pharmaceutical industry in Egypt, and for many reasons, including:

• Discouraging pricing policies as the local pricing policy is the referential for the export price.
• The constant increase in the domestic demand for many essential drugs, and therefore constraining some of the export opportunities, especially for the essential drugs.

Once again reiterating that the decision to establish the city of medicine is a great boost to the Egyptian drug market is a must here, not only to narrow the shortage gap in the list of essential drugs for the local market, but also to penetrate & unlock a wider field for exporting the city’s production upon fulfilling the domestic demand needs.

The value of the global pharmaceutical industry in the year 2020 reached 1.43 trillion dollars, of which about 150 billion dollars are spent on research and development in order to keep pace with the increasing global demand for medicine

A quick look at the top ten drug manufacturers in the world, one could find that some of these companies have budgets nearly the size of some countries’ budgets and with gigantic annual business numbers.

And here is a list of the top ten drug manufacturers in term of their sales in 2020:

The volume of global pharmaceutical exports in 2018 amounted to about $371 billion, and these exports increase annually by an average of 5.8%.

Europe accounts for about 79.7% of the value of these exports globally, followed by Asia with about 10.7%, while North America contributes about 8.1% of the value of these exports, and the exports of the rest of the world of medicine represent only small percentages such as:

• Latin America 0.7%
• Australia 0.5%
• Africa 0.2%

Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of drugs and medicines during 2018:

A great effort to open new markets, develop the current markets of Egyptian medicine and review some policies that may limit the launch of export figures to a level worthy of the Egyptian pharmaceutical industry is accordingly in orderEgypt is ranked the 50th in the list of the countries with exporting volume of 250 million dollars which is far below the ambitions of many of the drug industry’s pioneers and those of Egyptian statesmen and those associated to that sector. Hence, a strong focus should be placed on the development of the size of this sector and its exports, especially with the praised endorsement of consumers and importers of Egyptian medicine in the external markets in terms of quality and effectiveness.

There is no doubt that the presence of giant projects such as the city of medicine pushes towards the aforementioned and we are still waiting to start and expand the manufacturing of pharmaceutical materials in the city of medicine to boost the probabilities of Egyptian medicine in competition both internally and externally.

We are confident that we will soon see a marked surge in Egyptian drug exports as well as unprecedented successes in ensuring Egyptian drug security and the availability of essential medicines for Egyptian citizens.

Finally, a special tribute to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and to the Egyptian statesmen for bringing this gigantic and leading project to reality

About The Author:

• One of the leading experts in developing and marketing of cosmoceuticals and supplements, Founder of MACRO Group Pharmaceuticals, Octipharma UAE and CIRA Pharma group Egypt All specialized in producing and promoting pharmaceuticals, cosmoceuticals and food supplements.
• Dr.Sobhi has contributed in the huge enrichment and development of the industry specially in the field of cosmeceuticals 
• Currently he is moving on to the next chapter by founding CIRA Pharma group with its administrative office opened for business  in Nasr city – Cairo along with the CIRA factory in Badr city – Cairo expected to open for business by 2021 which  is being  founded with the highest Quality Standards  for the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.

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