The Jordanian pharmaceutical industry, which was established in the sixties of the last century, has carved out a great and distinguished success story that made its products circulate in the markets of 85 countries around the world, making the Kingdom the only country in the region that exports more than it imports.

This access and presence in the Arab and international markets indicates the quality of the Jordanian product from the pharmaceutical industry and its high ability to compete with other products, as a result of its application of best practices, international specifications and standards.

The production of Jordanian medicine is one of the oldest Arab industries, as the first factory was established in the city of Salt in 1962 to be a national product with distinction across borders, and it was marked with quality certificates based on the confidence of export markets, as the Kingdom exports 80 percent of its pharmaceutical production.

According to the representative of the therapeutic industries and medical supplies sector at the Jordan Chamber of Industry, Dr. Fadi Al-Atrash, the sector occupies a prominent and pioneering position in the region, and in the past decade it has achieved distinguished results that made it a milestone in the national economy, especially the pharmaceutical industries, which formed a real success story that crossed with it to the world.

Dr. Al-Atrash told the Jordan News Agency (Petra) that the volume of existing production in the sector amounts to about 1.62 billion dinars annually, and its productivity constitutes approximately 10 percent of the total production of the entire industrial sector, while the average growth rate of the sector’s production during the past decade reached 8.8 percent annually. .

He added that the pharmaceutical industries and medical supplies account for 3 percent of the gross domestic product, through the added value provided by its production operations, amounting to 51 percent of the total existing production for the sector, or about 828 million dinars, which constitutes 12 percent of the total value. added to the industrial sector.

Dr. Al-Atrash, who also holds the position of Executive Director and member of the Board of Directors of the Amman Pharmaceutical Industries Company, indicated that the sector includes 151 establishments, with a registered capital of about 341 million dinars, while the number of Jordanian factories outside the Kingdom is 15, located in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Sudan. .

“Perhaps the most important characteristic of the sector is its reliance on Jordanian manpower at various administrative and technical levels, and they constitute more than 98 percent of the total number of 10,000 workers, and 35 percent of them are female,” he said.

He added, “The sector includes 3 sub-sectors, which are the industries of human medicines, veterinary medicines, and medical supplies,” noting that human medicines constitute about 85 percent of the sector’s total activity.

He pointed out that the vision of economic modernization put the medical industries and medical supplies sector at the top of its priorities as one of the high-value industries and one of the engines of economic growth, and carried many initiatives and strategies to advance the sector as it aims to reach the gross domestic product of the pharmaceutical industries (value added) to about 1.7 billion dinars and an increase The number of employees to 16 thousand workers.

And he indicated that the vision of economic modernization seeks to raise the sector’s exports to reach 2.1 billion dinars by 2033 by adopting many priorities to achieve this, most notably: creating qualitative pharmaceutical industries and pharmaceutical industries and establishing a center for drug research and development.

According to Dr. Al-Atrash, the vision of economic modernization seeks to attract investments into the sector of approximately 1.1 billion dinars within ten years for the purpose of upgrading the sector to become a regional center for pharmaceutical products through the use of technologies and the development of new drugs, focusing on expansion and entry into new markets, and achieving drug security for Jordan and the region.

He pointed to the statistics of the World Trade Center, indicating that the Kingdom has many export opportunities to various countries of the world in many industrial sectors, foremost of which are the therapeutic industries and medical supplies, which were estimated at more than 515 million dollars for various countries.

And he indicated that most of these export opportunities were concentrated in the countries of the North American region, with a value of $174 million, and the Middle East countries came second with a value of $85 million, while the United States of America came as the market that has the most untapped export opportunities for the medical industries and medical supplies sector, with a value of $164 million. Then the Saudi market worth 52 million dollars, and China 37 million dollars.

Dr. Al-Atrash said, “The sector is looking forward to expanding its geographical scope of exports by heading towards African markets, which enjoy a large level of demand for medicines, pharmaceutical preparations, and medical supplies, which provides a great opportunity within those markets for Jordanian pharmaceutical products,” appreciating the value of Jordanian export opportunities for industries. Pharmaceutical within the African market in excess of 100 million dollars.

He added that the exports of the medical industries and medical supplies sector increased during the past year by 5.7 percent compared to 2021, to reach 692 million dinars, accounting for approximately 7.3 percent of the total Jordanian industrial exports.

He added that the exports were distributed among the human pharmaceutical industries, with a value of 599 million dinars, veterinary medicines with 87 million dinars, and medical supplies with a value of 14 million dinars, or 2 percent of the sector’s total exports.

He pointed out that the Arab markets were the most prominent export destinations for the sector during the past year, accounting for 86 percent of the total exports, with a value of 602 million dinars, while the United States came as the most prominent non-Arab partner, with a value of about 57 million dinars.

Dr. Al-Atrash said, “Despite the successes, the medical industries and medical supplies sector faces many difficulties and challenges that impede its continued development and growth, including the local localization policy of the existing industry in some neighboring countries, which negatively affects the sector’s exports, in addition to the lack of discipline in global supply chains and the noticeable increase in prices.” Raw materials and packaging.

He added, “Among the challenges and difficulties as well are the high costs of production, especially the price of energy, the delay in non-payment of debts accumulated by official institutions, which amount to more than 60 million dinars, the small local market and the modest purchasing power, which affects attracting more investments.”

Dr. Al-Atrash referred to other challenges and difficulties related to access to some international markets due to the weakness of promotion and marketing of Jordanian industry products, in addition to the existence of non-customs administrative obstacles imposed by some Arab countries that impede the flow of pharmaceutical products to their markets.

On what is required to support the sector, Dr. Al-Atrash stressed the need to pursue the vision of economic modernization, as it reflects the private sector’s view on the most important challenges and obstacles that stand in the way of the development and growth of various economic activities by accelerating the growth engine, improving the quality of life and achieving sustainability.

He stressed the importance of increasing the share of Jordanian medicine in the local market in terms of the private sector or bids by implementing and adopting a plan to promote Jordanian pharmaceutical products internally and externally, and participating in international pharmaceutical exhibitions to introduce the quality of the Jordanian product and the ancient position of this industry.

He stressed the need to stimulate contractual production and marketing in general and for biological medicines in particular, and to enable companies operating in the sector to obtain the necessary licenses and certificates for presence and export to non-traditional markets such as European countries and the United States.

He pointed to the necessity of automating various processes, governing and accelerating government procedures, issuing approvals and certificates electronically to meet the requirements of the export and local markets, and simplifying and accelerating registration procedures.

Dr. Al-Atrash called for adopting stimulating policies for the sector that contribute to attracting local and foreign investors, facilitating obtaining financial support through sovereign or private funds, and contributing to increasing the competitiveness of the local product by providing support and reducing production costs of all kinds, facilitating research and access to intellectual property data.

Petra