Saudi Arabia-based Arabio appointed Alphamed as its sales and distribution partner in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Arabio claims to be the only Arab firm specialized in producing biologics and vaccines, and started manufacturing operations at its 10,000 m2 facility in Makkah, in August 2011.
Arabio has a technology transfer agreement in place with Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, which will enable the manufacture of all the latter’s vaccines at the Makkah facility. Production has already started for Novartis’ Menveo meningitis vaccine, Agrippal flu vaccine, and Quinvaxem, a pentavalent vaccine developed with Crucell against whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, hemophilus influenza type B, and hepatitis B.
Arabio says it aims to export its products to the Gulf region as well as to Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania. The firm has additional rights to export to some African and other Islamic countries.