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Al-Omar: The National Factory for Blood Plasma Products Projected to Save the Kingdom 30% of Cost

16 October 2015

The Deputy Minister of Health for Laboratories and Blood Banks, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Omar, highlighted that setting up a national factory for blood plasma products, for the first time in the Kingdom, in partnership with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), will be of great pharmaceutical and economic impact on the health sector. “This factory is reckoned one of the important pharmaceutical projects, and a quantum leap in health services in the Kingdom,” stated Al-Omar.

He went on adding that the project aims at getting safe and secure blood and blood products from the local genes, thus securing such blood products from a safe source. Besides, Al-Omar described the plasma products factory as a vital and strategic project, where plasma products are manufactured, Allah willing, from local blood, to be used for curative purposes. In other words, instead of importing plasma products, they will be produced locally.

He pointed out that blood products (ranging from 7 to 9 as needed) are used to treat some diseases. He labeled this project as a source of "health and national safety," explaining that the blood products are currently being imported from abroad, taking the form of drugs, including plasma and clotting factors, and this project will secure such drugs, by means of blood donation locally.

Al-Omar indicated that the drugs produced from blood products are very expensive; the Kingdom imports blood products annually with a total cost of SR 332 million. The factory is projected to save about 30% of this cost.