Palestinian pharma company makes first shipment of medicine to Europe

Jun 3, 2008, 14:57 GMT

Ramallah - Pharmacare, a Ramallah-based Palestinian pharmaceutical company, shipped 2.4 million capsules of the pain killer Tramal to Germany on Tuesday, marking the first-ever Palestinian-made medicine export to the European market.

The shipment, Pharmacare founder and chief executive officer Basem Khoury said, was the first of medicine from Palestinian areas to be shipped to a regulated market in Europe after the Palestinian company received in 2007 the European standards certificate EU GMP.

He made the remarks while speaking at ceremonies on the company's Ramallah premises, attended by Acting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Jurgen Ruettgers, Premier of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and a large crowd of guests.

Khoury noted that Palestinian pharmaceutical companies ship products to non-regulated markets in Africa and the Middle East, but Tuesday's shipment was the first time a Palestinian product was earmarked for a regulated market with high standards.

Although Europe consists of only 15 per cent of the world's population, its pharmaceutical market accounts for 85 per cent, he noted, while calling the Pharmacare shipment 'an important and symbolic event.'

He said that if a Palestinian product has been able to reach the European market in spite of all the difficulties placed in its way by the Israeli occupation, 'then we know that tomorrow will be even better when all these obstacles imposed on us are removed.'

He said Germany has funded the Palestinian economy with 600 million dollars and pledged another 300 million dollars at the December Paris donors conference.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who visited the Palestinian areas on Monday, travelled with Fayyad on the same day to the northern West Bank city of Jenin where he announced German financial and logistical support for the Palestinian security forces and industrial projects in the city.

Ruettgers said that 'today is the first step in cooperation' between Palestinian and German companies and the beginning of stronger Palestinian-German economic relations.

Pharmacare and the German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal, which is located in North Rhine-Westphalia, have cooperated since 1999 in producing several Grunenthal products, including Tramal.

Pharmacare has a 29 per cent stake in the German company and plans to expand its operations in the European market under the name Pharmacare Europe.

Khoury said that while exports to the German market and to Europe in general will reach only one million euros (1.55 million dollars) this year, he expects exports to increase in the next three years to 30 million euros.

The Palestinian company, established in 1985, is planning to produce antibiotics, and then medicine for ulcers, specifically for the European market.

The Palestinian shipment will leave Ramallah stamped 'Made in Palestine,' but once it reaches Germany it will be re-packaged at the German pharmaceutical plant and have the German company's logo on it.