Egypt manufactures insulin from French raw material

CAIRO – 23 June 2019: Egypt managed to obtain, for the first time, French high-quality raw material to manufacture insulin locally, to be provided inside the Health Ministry's hospitals for all patients for free, according to the ministry's pharmaceutical department.

"We aim to provide the market needs of vital medicines, including Sedico's Insulin, especially those of chronic diseases, such as Diabetes, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Population, according to the best quality standards in the world," said Olfat Ghorab, chairman of the Health Ministry's Arab Company for Drug Industries and Medical Appliances (ACDIMA).

ACDIMA provided insulin with American quality last year in the health markets and hospitals, Ghorab said.

She added that the keenness to upgrade the pharmaceutical raw materials comes within the framework of raising the quality of the local products and providing the best treatment services to the Egyptian patients, in accordance with the directives of the political leadership and in full coordination with the Ministry of Health.

ACDIMA Mohamed Khattab said that 210,000 insulin vials made of French materials have been made available in the private market and hospitals since the beginning of this year. He added that Egypt has exported this insulin to five countries.

Egypt has been working to manufacture products locally in various fields.

The Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) and the Ministry of Health signed a protocol of cooperation, which aims at achieving self-sufficiency of self-destructing syringes and providing all the needs of the Ministry of Health concerning advanced medical equipment.

Head of the AOI Abdel Moneim al-Tarras stressed the importance of participating in enhancing local industrialization in accordance with the directives of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to transfer and localize technology and increase local medical industries.

Minister of Health Hala Zayed praised the efforts of the AOI to increase the local manufacturing rates in the medical industries and lauded its commitment to the delivery dates and after-sales service matching international quality standards.

The AOI also signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea-based SepraTek membrane manufacturing company to help enhance Egypt's national production in the field of water desalination.

Tarras explained that the areas of cooperation with SepraTek include transferring technical expertise, localizing technology, and training cadres for the purpose of designing, developing and manufacturing membrane production lines and producing pressure vessels in desalination plants by reverse osmosis system.

Tarras noted that the South Korean company will train engineers and technicians on manufacturing, assembling, and testing of products in accordance with quality requirements.