Answer extracted from the Beyond the Deck podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How are Gulf countries shifting pharmaceutical manufacturing up the value chain?
The GCC is advancing from secondary packaging (vials and boxes) toward higher-value fill-and-finish operations where countries control dosage forms—oral, liquid, transdermal, and injectable medications—and intellectual property ownership. While countries show strong ambition, progress is a slow burn because they're building from ground zero, shifting from complete import dependency to self-sufficiency.
From imports to indigenous capacity: the shift underway
Gulf states have historically relied almost entirely on imported pharmaceuticals, with minimal domestic manufacturing. The new strategy reverses this dependency by moving beyond simple repackaging operations into actual drug development and production control. This shift represents a substantial reallocation of resources, expertise, and infrastructure.
As Elsy Dumit explains in the episode, fill-and-finish capabilities are critical—they allow countries to take active pharmaceutical ingredients and transform them into finished dosage forms ready for patients. This is fundamentally different from secondary packaging, which adds value without controlling the core medication itself.
Talent and capacity: the real bottleneck
The primary challenge isn't capital or political will; it's limited talent pools and technical capacity. Building a world-class pharmaceutical manufacturing sector requires specialized knowledge across chemistry, regulatory affairs, quality assurance, and supply chain management—expertise that doesn't yet exist at scale in the region.
To address this gap, GCC countries are employing a three-pronged strategy: partnerships with established international players, strategic joint ventures, and acquisitions of existing companies. These mechanisms serve as conduits for technology transfer. Local workforce members are being trained abroad—often in Europe and North America—and returning to lead domestic operations and train the next generation.
Details on how these partnerships are structured and which specific international companies have been acquired are discussed further in the full episode, where Dumit unpacks the real mechanics of these collaborations.
"The GCC is shifting from secondary packaging toward higher-value pharmaceutical development and intellectual property ownership, including fill-and-finish operations where countries control dosage forms like oral, liquid, transdermal, and injectable medications."
Elsy Dumit — Principal in Healthcare and Life Science Practice at Rollenberger. Dumit has an extensive career in the healthcare space working across the GCC with leading institutions and governments on building resilient healthcare systems, with significant experience in pharma and biotechnology. She holds a Master's degree in Public Health and Global Health from Johns Hopkins University and degrees in biotech from Georgetown, and previously worked at PAHO (Pan American Health Organization), the regional office for the Americas for the WHO, focusing on emergency preparedness, outbreak control, and pandemic response.
The ambition is clear and backed by real capital investment and policy reforms, but the transition is fundamentally constrained by the speed at which human expertise can be built. This is not a two-year project—it's a multi-year transformation that requires sustained commitment and ongoing knowledge transfer from international partners.
See also
How prepared are we for the next pandemic, and what lessons did COVID reveal about healthcare system weaknesses?
Another major pandemic is very likely to occur. COVID highlighted and put in stark relief the tears and cracks in public health and healthcare systems.
What does resilience in healthcare systems specifically mean beyond general preparedness?
Resilience in healthcare has multiple dimensions. Health security involves protection of the population against unforeseen or uncontrolled disease spread.
What role does health financing reform play in building resilient healthcare systems in the GCC?
Traditionally in the GCC, government serves as the payer, provider, and regulator of healthcare, creating a situation where populations do not act as consumers.