Arabio Appoints Alphamed as Vaccines Distributor in UAE
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.
GSK Agreement
The signature of this tripartite manufacturing agreement in March 2014 between Arabio, GSAL and GSK Vaccines establishes a long-term alliance for the manufacturing of GSK Vaccines in Saudi Arabia.
The scope of the alliance is the appointment of Arabio as a contract manufacturer for the filling and packaging of selected liquid vaccines in prefilled syringes and vials for supply to the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. In addition to the partnership developed in 2010 between GSK Vaccines and GSAL for the manufacturing and commercialization of vaccines in Saudi Arabia, the extension of this partnership to Arabio will allow GSAL to commercialize in Saudi Arabia GSK Vaccines locally manufactured (filled and packed) by Arabio.
As such, all GSK Vaccines needed for the Universal Vaccination Program of the Kingdom will be manufactured in Saudi Arabia either by GSAL or by Arabio.